Businesses
‘The CAP is a bureaucratic monster with a tremendous appetite for EU money. But it has been there for two generations, and nothing can bring that beast down. One has to live with it.’ Or so many in the business community have reluctantly concluded. 
But this is wrong. Times of change have come, and the business community has every interest to take on leadership.
These are the main advantages for businesses if the post-2013 CAP limits EU support to programs that efficiently promote European public goods, such as combating climate change, preserving biodiversity, and enhancing flood control:
More business-oriented EU spending: There are just not that many public goods of genuinely European rather than local or national interest. And the instruments for promoting these goods could be much enhanced to root out current inefficiencies. This would free up funds for objectives that are more relevant to the business community, such as research and development or energy security.
More business-oriented national spending: Ecological trends require that additional money be spent to make agriculture more environmentally friendly. If EU money is wasted on farm income support instead of being invested in such programs, more national money will have to be used for agri-environmental purposes. That means higher taxes and less business-oriented spending at national level.
Less pressure to cut greenhouse gas emissions: Agriculture is a key producer of greenhouse emissions. The less agriculture contributes to meeting EU reduction targets, the more industry will have to curb its emissions. Using EU money to shrink the ecological footprint of agriculture makes sense for industry.
A boost to the single market: The business community has been historically attached to the single market and European integration. The repeated difficulties encountered in advancing the EU treaties have revealed the lack of commitment of many leaders and citizens to the EU project. Fundamental CAP reform is the precondition for a new long-term EU budget that gives new momentum to European integration and instills a sense of purpose.
A liberal breakthrough: The CAP is the very symbol of bureaucratic state intervention in the European economy. Transforming it into a lean policy that efficiently targets public goods – without distorting competition and inhibiting structural change – would be a signal for a more liberal approach to all areas of the economy.
EU agricultural tariff cuts: A reformed CAP would facilitate structural change in agriculture and help policymakers to recognize that agriculture can flourish under free competition. This would, in turn, prepare the reduction or removal of excessively high EU agricultural tariffs. The benefits would go not only to users of agricultural inputs – the entire economy would profit from greater international specialization according to comparative advantage.
New market access abroad: EU agricultural policy is routinely lambasted as hypocrisy by developing countries. It discredits the free-trade argument and serves as a pretext for maintaining barriers to trade in all kinds of goods and services. If the EU takes the lead and dismantles its protectionism in agriculture, this will lend lasting support to free-traders around the world.