In December 2005, the UK government published a Vision which continues to underpin the government’s negotiating position. Looking ahead to the 2015 - 2020 period, the UK advocates a substantial decrease in total EU spending on agriculture with the remaining expenditure focused exclusively on promoting sustainable rural development and maintaining the environment. All price support, export refunds, and production subsidies would be eliminated and, for the purpose of social welfare benefits, farmers would be treated the same as all other members of society. Whilst a number of transition mechanisms are discussed, the paper was roundly criticised at the time for not setting out a more clear route map to reform, and for being somewhat imprecise about Pillar 2 and the size of its budget. It was published before the advent of the Health Check and coincided with the decision of EU leaders to hold a review of the EU budget.