An Ex-post Review of the 1992 MacSharry Reform

Abstract

The long and multifarious history of the CAP could easily be written up as a history of attempts at reforming this policy — mostly failed attempts, one should say.¹ It was not until the CAP had existed for about two decades that the first notable adjustments were made in the mid-1980s, with the introduction of milk quotas and budgetary ‘stabilisers’. However, these policy changes cured symptoms rather than causes. Another decade had to pass before more fundamental changes were introduced under the MacSharry reform. Now the process of CAP reform appears to accelerate. The third and last annual step of implementing the MacSharry reform was made in mid-1995, as the next round of CAP reform appeared, introduced by Commissioner Fischler’s Agricultural Strategy Paper in the context of preparing the European Union for Eastern enlargement.²