Pro-Europeans

The CAP is a burden on European integration. It creates an image of a bureaucratic, non-transparent, and ill-managed EU. It wastes resources that could, if employed more wisely, convince the European citizens of the benefits of integration. It also nurtures a culture of national egoism that stymies rational, efficiency-oriented decision-making on EU expenditures and budget financing.

Idealists who wish to improve the effectiveness and legitimacy of the EU should therefore support fundamental CAP reform – in order to enable further steps towards an ever closer union and to protect against potential backslashes. However, the viability of pro-European movements rests on self-restraint. They take positions on institutional issues but avoid taking positions on sectoral policies that are likely to be more divisive for their membership, be it along party or national lines.

This holds a challenge and a promise. The challenge is to convince pro-Europeans that in the negotiations for the next long-term EU budget the CAP is not just one – especially big – sectoral policy. CAP reform is the cornerstone of a better and stronger EU. The promise comes from the symbolic strengthening of the CAP reform alliance if the always careful pro-European movements decide to speak out in favor of change.