Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The CAP and EU Enlargement: Prospects for an Alternative Strategy to Avoid the Lock‐in of CAP Support

2004; Wiley; Volume: 42; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.0021-9886.2004.00478.x

1468-5965

Carsten Daugbjerg, Alan Swinbank,

European Union Policy and Governance

Abstract The integration of the central and east European countries (CEECs) into the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) could become a major problem. At the Copenhagen European summit in December 2002, the EU agreed a transitional period with a gradual phasing in of direct payments. However, this strategy will not solve the problems of the CAP: budgetary limits remain problematic, the policy ignores possible developments in the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the extension of direct payments to the CEECs will further capitalize, and hence lock‐in, agricultural support. The latter makes future reform even more difficult and, to overcome these problems, we suggest an alternative strategy to integrate the CEECs into the CAP. The EU should phase out direct payments by applying a bond scheme. Finally, we consider whether this option is politically viable.