ABSTRACT
The chapter discusses the progressive integration of environmental concerns into the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), on the basis of their experience from collaborating with numerous international organizations including the European Commission, the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Center for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies, as well as international foundations, universities and international research centres. It provides an overall assessment of the tense relations between two important European policies: for agriculture and for the environment. In CAP reforms, the final policy outcome often is the product of a process of path-dependent materialization of the policy debate. It demonstrates how, initially meant to support European agriculture production, the CAP increasingly poses challenges to the Union’s environmental objectives. How could agricultural and rural Europe contribute to feed its population, create sustainable jobs and, in the meantime, answer to climate change adaptation and mitigation challenges? Detailing the evolution of CAP, the chapter questions the idea of the CAP being the first European environmental policy, as it is sometimes claimed.
