ABSTRACT
The implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has been one of the core responsibilities of the European Union (the European Communities before the Maastricht Contract, respectively). The history of the CAP is a history of ever ongoing reforms and a continuous struggle to make progress in attaining the policy goals. The policy instruments had remained untouched during the first three decades of the CAP, except the introduction of milk quotas in 1984. The 1992 CAP reform introduced accompanying measures (CR 20781992), which were directed towards limiting the adverse effects of the reform of market regimes. The Agenda 2000 package brought about a new agenda for agriculture. It introduced the idea of an integrated rural development policy as a second pillar of the CAP. The assessment of the effects of the 2003 CAP reform on agriculture based on statistical data therefore shows that farmers in European Union (EU)-15 were not better off after the reform.
