CAP Reform, the Berlin Summit, and EU Enlargement

The planned enlargement of the EU necessitates major changes in the EU's agricultural policy. The decisions of the Berlin summit in 1999 have been rated as a major breakthrough towards a liberalization of the CAP by the EU Commission and the ministers of agriculture, but are seen considerably more critically by others. The consequences of the compromises reached in Berlin will be distortions both in the allocation of land to agriculture, forestry and environmental purposes, and in the distribution of sectoral income, leading to excessive budget outlays and high economic rents for landowners who are increasingly themselves not active farmers. A fundamental reform of the CAP is still required. What elements should it contain? How^could its chances of implementation be increased?

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