In 1957, the Treaty of Rome had no difficulty assigning five goals to the CAP: (i) to increase productivity, (ii) to ensure a fair standard of living for farmers, (iii) to stabilise markets, (iv) to assure the availability of supplies, and (v) to ensure reasonable prices for consumers. The mistake was to use one single instrument (guaranteed production prices) to try to reach all five goals—hence the CAP’s total or partial failure in relation to the last four goals. Things are much more complex nowadays. In particular, agriculture in Europe and around the world has to face up to long-term challenges that were unknown back in the 1960s—in particular, climate change, and limited energy and water resources.

The coming years will be dominated by three kinds of public policies which were relatively unimportant a few years ago: structural adjustment policies, policies dealing with agricultural and food safety, and those ensuring “multi-functionality”.

These policies deal with concerns that often nurture fears and protectionism.

However, it is worth recalling that the diet of many Europeans has little in common with what it was thirty or forty years ago, and this is mainly due to the international trade of food products. As a result, the appropriate question about the three policies is to know how to develop them in a rapidly globalising world. Price fluctuations, climate risk (apart from climate change) and health crises also require new private policies, especially those facilitating better risk management and enhanced competition, from farm to consumer.

Working papers, a symposium of the proceedings and video and audio material can be freely downloaded from the GEM website.

It was organised by the Groupe d’Economie Mondiale and benefited from the support or contributions of La France Agricole, the German Marshall Fund of the United States, the OECD and Sciences Po.