ABSTRACT
For EU dairy farmers the Luxemburg agreement, decided in 2003, marked a new phase in the process of Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) reform. Direct payments were decoupled and the Single Payment Scheme (SPS) was implemented. This reform aimed to increase the competitiveness of European agriculture and to promote a market orientated agricultural sector. The new CAP reform proposed in 2008 (known as the CAP Health Check) maintains these objectives of decoupling and the removal of the milk quota system in 2015. In France, more than in some others EU member states, this decision raises questions because the government historically favoured a balanced geographical distribution of milk production through an administration of milk quotas. Moreover, for dairy farmers, these changes occurred simultaneously with an unprecedented market situation, namely high price fluctuations of agricultural raw materials.
