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the CAP and CFP
"The average British family shells out over £450
a year to pay for European agriculture subsidies, including cash to artificially
inflate prices... EU farm subsidies are costing the European consumer
over £61 billion."
Journalist Bruno Waterfield
"This policy is one of the biggest factors in the starvation
of Africa, smothering Africa's agricultural industries in their cot by
making it impossible for poor farmers to sell competitively in the most
enticing markets. For every one euro we give to Africa, the EU takes away
seven euros in thwarted trade."
Journalist Johann Hari
What is it?
The Common Agricultural Policy is a system of farm subsidy throughout
the EU. It currently accounts for 45% of the EU budget.
What effect does it have?
The CAP insulates inefficient, small-scale farms from economic reality
so that they don't need to modernise. Whilst it keeps the French countryside
looking pretty, it also keeps third world farmers in poverty by erecting
tariff barriers to deny them fair access to European markets. At the same
time it pays European farmers to produce more than they can sell, then
dumps the excess on third world markets, with the result that third world
farmers can't sell their produce at home either.
The devastation the CAP inflicts on the third world far outweighs the benefits of EU aid. To put it in context, every cow in Europe receives 100 times as much financial support from the EU as every human in sub-Saharan Africa.
Are there plans to reform it?
Like reform of MEP's expenses and perks, reform of the CAP is one of those
issues that is constantly discussed but never actually carried out. For
example, Tony Blair's capitulation in increasing Britain's contribution
to the EU budget in December 2005 was on the rather vague condition that
reform of the CAP be "considered". In the event, the new budget
devoted an even larger proportion to the CAP than its predecessor.
What is the CFP?
The CAP's lesser known cousin, the Common Fisheries Policy, is just as
destructive. By imposing arbitrary quotas on what fishermen are allowed
to land, it forces them to throw back into the sea vast quantities of
perfectly good, saleable fish, which are of course already dead. An internal
European Commission report in 1991 put the amount at "millions of
tons" every year. Whilst devastating fishermen's livelihoods, this
clearly does nothing for conserving fish stocks.
It is also interesting to note the way the policy is applied. The fish in the waters around Britain have been designated a "common European resource", whereas those in the Mediterranean have not. This was made a condition of Britain's joining the EEC in the 1970s, and although it was enough to persuade Norway not to join, Britain swallowed this condition and joined anyway. Norway still has a thriving fishing industry today.