A Political Economy Perspective on the Fischler Reform of the CAP1

In 1995, Franz Fischler, a then largely unknown Austrian politician, became EU Commissioner in charge of the CAP. There was surprise that a new member state had been given the powerful Agricultural Commission chair, but no major expectations surrounded his arrival in Brussels. However, a decade and two tenures later, Fischler was recognised by friend and foe alike as the architect of the most radical reforms of the CAP.