Author: Alan Matthews

Alan Matthews is Professor Emeritus of European Agricultural Policy in the Department of Economics at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. His major research interests are agricultural policy analysis, the impact of international trade on developing countries, and computable general equilibrium analysis of trade and agricultural policy reforms. He has worked as a consultant to the European Parliament, the OECD, the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations and the UN Industrial Development Organisation, and has been a panel member in a number of WTO Dispute Settlement procedures. He is a former President of the European Association of Agricultural Economists but writes here in a personal capacity.
Posted on

Promoting rural jobs through the CAP

In a previous post, I discussed trends in agricultural employment and the impact of CAP policies on these trends. I noted how policy-makers are asking whether EU agricultural policy could do more, or be more effective, in contributing to job creation. Last year the European Parliament passed a resolution on how the CAP could improve job creation in rural areas. The issue will also be raised in the Commission’s Communication on modernising and simplifying the CAP which is expected towards the end of this year.
In this post, I discuss the role that the CAP could play in promoting jobs.… Read the rest

Posted on

CAP – out of the box thinking

Last Monday saw the launch of a report “CAP – thinking out of the box” by the Rural Investment Support for Europe (RISE) Foundation. The report director was Allan Buckwell and the other contributors to the report are Erik Mathjis, David Baldock and myself. The report is a response to the public consultation on the modernisation and simplification of the CAP launched by Commissioner Phil Hogan in February.
Below, I reproduce a short summary of the key messages of the report.

Further adaptation of the CAP is necessary to help EU farming become a well-structured industry which is economically viable and environmentally sustainable.

… Read the rest
Posted on

Does the Basic Payment make farmers lazy?

The provocative title of this post was prompted by a tweet in my Twitter timeline (@xAlan_Matthews) which told how a farm speaker at a meeting the tweeter had attended had said he/she was frustrated by how many farmers do not manage their farms as businesses and that the Basic Payment makes some lazy.

I do not want to make moral judgements about anyone’s conduct but it is, indeed, an interesting question to ask how the CAP support system affects farmers’ individual behaviour. It is, of course, well known that farmers’ decision-making is often motivated by reasons other than rational profit-maximising behaviour.… Read the rest

Posted on

The CAP and agricultural employment

Phil Hogan, the EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, has promised a Communication on modernising and simplifying the CAP before the end of 2017. One of the six broad objectives for the CAP set out in the Commission’s inception impact assessment is to “encourage a vibrant rural economy by fostering growth and jobs in rural areas and encouraging generational renewal”.
This builds on one of the three objectives for Pillar 2 rural development spending in the 2014-2020 period which is “achieving a balanced territorial development of rural economies and communities including the creation and maintenance of employment” (Art.… Read the rest

Posted on

The viability of EU farms

Economic sustainability is usually taken to be one of the three legs of the sustainability concept (the others being environmental and social sustainability – hence the phrase ‘people, planet, profit’). But what do we know about the economic sustainability of EU farming and how to measure it? A recent paper by researchers (Cathal O’Donoghue, Simon Devisme, Mary Ryan, Ricky Conneely, Patrick Gillespie and Hans Vrolijk) participating in the FLINT project have now used a pilot dataset collected at farm level in 8 Member States to focus attention on this issue.
The FLINT (Farm Level Indicators for New Topics) research project investigates the feasibility of providing policy-makers and the agro-food industry with farm-level indicators on sustainability and other relevant new issues.… Read the rest

Posted on

AGRIFISH Council meeting underlines pressures to reverse CAP reform

Agricultural Ministers had a round table discussion on the future of the CAP at yesterday’s AGRIFISH Council meeting in Brussels. This was based on an orientation paper prepared by the Maltese Presidency.
The orientation paper identified six CAP priorities. These included the three previously identified by the Commissioner – building resilience, responding to environmental challenges, and generational renewal – and three others – investing in rural viability and vitality, maintaining a market orientation and strengthening farmers’ position in the food chain. Ministers were invited to answer the following questions:

    In your view, what would be most effective way to address the CAP priorities?
… Read the rest
Posted on

COMAGRI rapporteur’s draft amendments to Omnibus Regulation

The COMAGRI rapporteur on the agricultural articles of the Omnibus Regulation Paolo de Castro (the other proposed co-rapporteur Albert Dess having at least temporarily dropped out of sight) has now circulated his Draft Opinion containing proposed amendments to the Committee to be debated later this month. The Omnibus Regulation (which is actually a proposal for a Regulation on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union but as well amends a number of sectoral regulations) is the first opportunity to make changes to the CAP basic acts since the 2013 CAP reform was concluded.
In this previous post, I reported on the contributions made during the first debate on the Omnibus Regulation in COMAGRI in December last year.… Read the rest

Posted on

What can we expect following the CAP public consultation?

DG AGRI launched its 12-week public consultation on modernising and simplifying the CAP on 2 February last. The publication of the on-line consultation was accompanied by an inception impact assessment to support the preparation of a Commission Communication on modernising and simplifying the CAP which is expected late this year, possibly in November.

According to the Q&A memorandum prepared by DG AGRI which accompanied these documents, the stakeholder consultation is expected to provide opinion-based information. “It is an opportunity to take into account societal demands in the policy discussions on the future of the CAP and adapt it to better integrate the new political priorities in an inclusive and comprehensive manner.… Read the rest

Posted on

GMO decision-making and the potential impact of Brexit

The EU’s paralysis with respect to decision-making on genetically-modified crops was illustrated once again at last Friday’s (27 January 2017) meeting of the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed when the committee failed to reach a qualified majority either for or against the renewal of the cultivation licence for the GM maize MON810 (currently the only GM crop licensed for cultivation in the EU) as well as on authorisations for cultivation of two other GM varieties ‘maize 1507’ and ‘Bt11’.

This is despite the fact that 19 Member States have excluded all or part of their territory from the cultivation of these three GMOs, pursuant to the provisions of Directive (EU) 2015/412 (the ‘cultivation opt-out’ directive).… Read the rest

Posted on

Establishing the UK’s non-exempt limit on agricultural support after Brexit

One of the issues the UK must address in establishing its WTO schedule of commitments post-Brexit is the limit it will have on certain types of domestic support it can provide to its farmers. This limit will, in turn, have implications for the way in which the UK and its devolved administrations can design their post-Brexit agricultural policies, assuming that they might wish to continue to provide some support to their farmers.

Domestic support in the WTO is measured as an Aggregate Measurement of Support, or AMS. Countries which provided non-exempt domestic support in the base period (1986-88) for commitments under the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) entered a Total AMS commitment in Part IV of their WTO schedules of commitments (their Bound Total AMS or BTAMS).… Read the rest