From the perspective of the Spanish government, the traditional CAP objective of food security remains in place, although there is an increasing acknowledgment of the need to address social and environmental values too. In the future, agricultural policy will have to respond to public demands linked to maintenance of landscapes, conservation of natural resources and biodiversity, food safety and sustainability.

There are two articles below. The first presents an overview of the Finnish government's position on the future reform of the CAP. The second, older, article reviews the position the government adopted during the CAP Health Check negotiations in 2008.

Political agreement on the CAP Health Check was finally reached on Thursday 20 November after a long night of negotiations. In this briefing, we analyse the key outcomes.

This is one of four briefings written by IEEP to analyse the outcomes of the 2008 CAP Health Check. This briefing examines the changes to cross compliance, and examines the potential implications for the the EU's environmental baseline.

This is one of four briefings written by IEEP to analyse the outcomes of the 2008 CAP Health Check. In this briefing, we examine the outcomes for the dairy sector, and in particular the influence of Germany in shaping the compromise.

This is one of four briefings written by IEEP to analyse the outcomes of the 2008 CAP Health Check. This briefing examines Article 68, and the potential implications for the future development of the CAP.

A conference on the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) and its impact in Malta took place in Victoria – Gozo on 7-9 November 2008. It highlighted some of the challenges facing Maltese agriculture.

A package of mainly modest reforms to the CAP based on the Commission's Health Check proposals reached political agreement today (November 20).

On 12 November the Commission held a stakeholder conference in Brussels on the EU Budget Review. This marks the close of the consultation exercise which began in September 2007. While the EU budget was once the preserve of a few suited negotiators and economists, the number, quality and diversity of consultation responses show that the subject is now a hot topic all around Europe.

While the CAP reform debate is in full swing, the UK countries have been consulting on the structure and content of their future agricultural policies as part of the transition away from the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy.

30 actions to transform the Commission’s proposals into a genuine transition tool.

Just a few days before EU Agriculture Ministers meet for the informal Council in Vienna and on the basis of the preparatory questions sent by the presidency to the delegations, the authors of this blog post identify the key elements for securing vibrant rural areas in the future CAP.

Those of us with long memories of CAP reforms know that there can be many dramas, dead ends and diversions along the way. Nonetheless, there has been a discernible direction of travel for two decades or more.