ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the up-to-date reforms and discussions on the difficult issue of simplification of the Common Agricultural Policy. Heralded in with the Treaty of Rome in 1957, the Common Agricultural Policy is among the oldest EU policies. Its special importance is confirmed by high budgetary outlays, which exceeded 75 percent in the record years prior to the reforms and, despite numerous efforts, continue to amount to around 40 percent of the total budget. This is why the CAP has fuelled many controversies, both among the EU countries and during trade negotiations, first the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Rounds and now the World Trade Organization talks. The GATT negotiations coincided with another round of CAP reforms, known as the MacSharry reforms, after the name of the then European Commissioner for Agriculture, Ray MacSharry. It was not a coincidence that European Community members incorporated several of the discussed compromises into their reform package.
