The Unintended Consequences of the Common Agricultural Policy for Local Communities – Reading EU Law and Politics in Ikaria, Greece

Abstract

states. In reality, France in particular was home to a large proportion of agricultural workers and small-scale farms. With the memory of postwar food shortages still fresh in many European countries, food security was a priority area. The CAP's aim as far as production was concerned was ultimately the creation of a single market for agricultural products, achieved by replacing existing national protective measures such as quotas and tariffs with common measures. 2 At first the overall objective was to increase agricultural productivity, and thus to ensure a fair standard of living for the agricultural community, to stabilise markets, to assure the availability of supplies, and to ensure that supplies reached consumers at reasonable prices. 3 The unintended consequences of the instruments used to fulfil these goals, in particular guaranteed prices which led to the infamous 'wine lakes' and 'butter mountains' of the 1980s, are well known. Subsequent waves of reform, including the major MacSharry reform package in 1992, which signalled the beginning of a decisive move away from price supports, 4 and the 2003 Fischler reform package, which heralded further moves to serve objectives beyond increased production through so-called 'cross-compliance', 5 have seen environmental protection come to gain prominence under the CAP in more recent years. This is supported by the environmental integration principle; 6 though the latter has been interpreted as a crutch used to emphasise environmental concerns in order to legitimise existing practices. 7 Yet, CAP measures nowadays must take into account "the particular nature of agricultural activity, which results from the social structure of agriculture and from structural and natural disparities between the various agricultural regions". 8 Thus, tensions between harmonisation to protect the internal market and foster integration, and the local nature of agriculture, including agroecological management and social aspects, are at the very core of the CAP. 9 As are distributive questions of authority, fuelled by the subsidiarity principle that demands that the EU only acts if and insofar as an objective cannot be sufficiently achieved by Member States, at national, regional or local level. 10 2 B Jack, Agriculture and Eu Environmental Law (Ashgate 2009), p 1. Note, however, that while the CAP appeared to be a uniform policy from the moment of its inception, in reality it functioned "as a Community umbrella with considerable room for diverse national policies", see F Snyder, 'Cap' in Erik Jones et al (eds), The Oxford Handbook of the European Union (Oxford University Press 2013). 3 Article 33 TEC. These objectives have never been changed: see likewise Article 39(1) TFEU.