Reargument on the Health Check of CAP Reform (2) : Concerning Political Agreement of the Agriculture Ministers Council

摘要

The Agriculture Ministers in the European Union reached politicalagreement on the Health Check of Common Agricultural Policy(CAP)Reform in the Agriculture Ministers Council meeting of November18-20, 2008. This paper aims to explore the contents of politicalagreement and clarify its significance and accompanying problems.At first, the remaining parts of direct income payments and the furtherpromotion of rural development policy are examined. The principalelements of Health Check proposals were to a great extent acceptedby the Agriculture Ministers Council. But there are a numberof problems to reflect. For example, it is the compulsory modulationthat became a serious issue between Member States. As a result, anextremely difficult compromise was made through by the FrenchPresidency amid conflicting national interests of Member States. Thepolitical agreement is certainly some progress over CAP reform. Howeverthe constraints of CAP reform are arising in proportion to theforward movement towards it. This point of the argument is finallyanalyzed.