After five years of debates, consultations and negotiations, the European institutions reached an agreement in 2013 on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for the 2014-2020 period. The outcome has major implications for the EUs budget and farmers incomes, but also for Europes environment, its contribution to global climate change and to food security in the EU and in the world.

It was decided to spend more than ¤400 billion during the rest of the decade on the CAP. The official claims are that the new CAP willtake better account of society's expectations and lead to far-reaching changes by making subsidies fairer and greener and making the CAP more efficient. It is also asserted that the CAP will play a key part in achieving the overall objective of promoting smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.

However, there is significant scepticism about these claims and disappointment with the outcome of the decision-making, the first in which the European Parliament was involved under the co-decision procedure. In contrast to earlier reforms where more substantive changes were made to the CAP, the factors that induced the policy discussions in 2008-13 and those that influenced the decision-making did not reinforce each other. On the contrary, they sometimes counteracted one another, yielding an imperfect storm as it were, resulting in more status quo and fewer changes.
This book discusses the outcome of the decision-making and the factors that influenced the policy choices and decisions. It brings together contributions from leading academics from various disciplines and policy-makers, and key participants in the process from the European Commission and the European Parliament.

Johan F.M. Swinnen is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies, where he directs the programme on EU agricultural and rural policy. He is Professor of Economics and Director of the LICOS-Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. He is a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Food Security and the Environment at Stanford University and President of the International Association of Agricultural Economists.

List of Figures, Tables and Boxes / List of Abbreviations / About the Contributors / Preface and Acknowledgements,Johan Swinnen/ 1. The Political Economy of the 2014-2020 Common Agricultural Policy: Introduction and key conclusions,Johan Swinnen/Part I. The CAP for 2014-2020 / 2. The 2013 Reform of the Common Agricultural Policy,Giovanni Anania and Maria Rosaria Pupo DAndrea/ 3. Was the CAP reform a success?,Jean-Christophe Bureau and Louis-Pascal Mahé/Part II. Perspectives from Inside the European Institutions / 4. Achievements and Constraints of the 2013 CAP Reform,Tassos Haniotis/ 5. Perspective from the European Parliament,Paolo De Castro and Angelo Di Mambro/ 6. The Perspective of the (former) European Commissioner for Environment,Janez Potonik/Part III. Political Economy Perspectives / 7. The Multi-Annual Financial Framework and the 2013 CAP Reform,Alan Matthews/ 8. The WTO: No longer relevant for CAP reform?,Alan Swinbank/ 9. From Greening to Greenwash: The drivers and discourses of CAP 2020 reform,Emil Erjavec, Marko Lovec and Karmen Erjavec/ 10. The Fate of Green Direct Payments in the CAP Reform Negotiations,Kaley Hart/ 11. The Political Economy of Capping Direct Payments: Applications in and implications for Germany,Amanda Sahrbacher, Alfons Balmann and Christoph Sahrbacher/ 12. CAP Reform, 2005-14, and the Muted Role of the Dis-United Kingdom,Alan Swinbank/Part IV. Co-Decision and the European Parliament / 13. COMAGRI and the CAP after 2013 Reform: In search of a collective sense of purpose,Christilla Roederer-Rynning/ 14. The European Parliament s Position on Market Regulation and the Impact of the Economic Context,Alessandro Olper and Lucia Pacca/ 15. Parliamentary Amendments to the Legislative Proposals of the 2013 CAP Reform,Imre Fert and Attila Kovacs/ 16. Co-decision and the CAP: An unfinished story Insights on the role of the European Parliament in the 2013 reform,Louise Knops and Maria Garrone/Part V. Conclusions and the Future / 17. An Imperfect Storm in the Political Economy of the Common Agricultural Policy,Johan Swinnen/ 18. CAP Reform, the US Farm Bill and the TTIP,Tim Josling/ 19. Reflections on the CAP post-2014,Alan Matthews/ 20. Where should the CAP go post-2020?,Allan Buckwell/ 21. Is there a need for a mid-term review of the 2013 CAP reform?,Rolf Moehler/ Appendix: A Summary of the Institutional Positions in the CAP Negotiations,Attila Kovacs, Louise Knops, Imre Fert and Johan Swinnen/ Index