Common Agricultural Policy
Introduction Common Agricultural Policy was created to promote proper functioning and development of common market for agricultural products. It is one of the principal policies of European Community to realise its goals. The proposal for Common Agricultural Policy was made by the European Commission in 1958. Some of the Member States, especially France, and all professional farmer‟s organisations wanted to keep the strong governmental participation in agriculture, which is not possible without harmonisation of policies and their transformation to European level. Common Agricultural Policy started with subsidising production of major agricultural goods to stimulate augmentation of food quantity and diversity. CAP is built on rules, mechanisms and instruments for production, trade and processing of agricultural products by paying increased attention to development of rural regions. Since its creation CAP has been changing and developing to fix problems that appeared and has been evolving during this time. In the present CAP is focused on direct support for farmers as the best way to guarantee agricultural income, safety and quality of food and ecological production. CAP is composed by two pillars. The first pillar, financed by the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) since 2007, represents measures to assist market and incomes including direct support with Single Payment Scheme (SPS) and Single Area Payment Scheme (SAPS), investments in market support with Common Market Organisations (CMOs), export subsidies etc. The second pillar, or Rural Development Regulation (RDR) of Agenda 2000, financed by European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), includes various measures for evolution and progress of rural regions as agri-enviromental schemes, investment assistance and payments to less favoured areas (LFA).

In this essay I will describe the rationale, main functions, goals and instruments of CAP. I will discuss some