Abstract
The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is among the European Union’s (EU) oldest common policies. Education and training became an important yet hidden social feature of the CAP, especially as the agricultural sector faced significant and far-reaching structural challenges from the 1960s onwards. Drawing upon records from the European Institutions, the chapter traces how and why vocational education and training became an important, albeit hidden, element of the CAP. It argues that vocational education and training was used as a policy instrument designed to soften the impact of agricultural integration on the farming community and to ensure the adaptation of the agricultural sector to changes. The chapter first examines how vocational education and training became integrated in the social provisions of the EU’s founding treaties in the 1950s. It then explores attempts at putting these provisions into practice during the CAP’s formative years. Finally, it investigates the role of vocational training in CAP reform since the late 1960s. Doing so, the chapter casts fresh light on an overlooked and under-researched aspect of the social dimension of the CAP while highlighting the creeping inclusion of vocational education and training in agricultural policy.
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- 1.
Historical Archives of the European Union (hereafter HAEU), Florence (Italy), CM3/0046, Grandes lignes des principaux projets de communauté agricole européenne, no date.
- 2.
HAEU, CM3/30, Document de travail n°5, Bruxelles, 6/11/1955.
- 3.
HAEU, CM3/38, Document de travail Projet de rapport sur le fond de réadaptation, Bruxelles, 22/09/1955. The proposed re-adaptation fund became the European Social Fund.
- 4.
HAEU, CM3/47, Note a/s Agriculture, Bruxelles, 25/01/1956 and document de travail n°5 Agriculture (2ème rédaction—corrigée), Bruxelles, 7/03/1956.
- 5.
HAEU, CM3/41, Note sur les conditions de pleine utilisation des ressources européennes, Bruxelles, 17/11/1955.
- 6.
HAEU, CM3/46, Objectifs et critiques formulées à l’égard des différents projets de communauté agricole européenne (Plans Mansholt, Charpentier, Eccles et Pflimlin).
- 7.
The French suggestion of “an effective coordination of efforts undertaken in the spheres of occupational training, research and popularization of rural economy, which may involve projects or institutions financed jointly” was taken over in the final treaty text. HAEU, CM3/140, Proposition de la délégation française concernant les articles 38 et 39, Bruxelles, 9/10/1956 and CM3/225, Projet de rédaction Article 38, Paris, 20/02/1957.
- 8.
HAEU, CM3/140, Projet de procès-verbal des réunions du groupe [du Marché commun] tenues à Bruxelles les 2-3 et 9/10/1956, Bruxelles, 13/10/1956.
- 9.
HAEU, CM3/96, Projet de procès-verbal de la conférence des ministres des Affaires étrangères des Etats membres de la CECA, les 26-28/01 et 4/02/1957, Bruxelles, 12 février 1957.
- 10.
Final Resolution adopted at the Agriculture Conference of the EEC Member States (Stresa, 12 July 1958), retrieved from http://www.cvce.eu/en/education/unit-content/-/unit/02bb76df-d066-4c08-a58a-d4686a3e68ff/7928d22e-eb5f-4e34-8f08-2f8b3c129ca1/Resources#441fa14a-624a-42fb-997f-b7d0a2aa0471_en&overlay
- 11.
HAEU, BA 1/1977-261, Projet de réponse au questionnaire Probst sur la situation sociale des entreprises familiales rurales dans les pays de la communauté européenne, Bruxelles, 11/04/1960.
- 12.
HAEU, BAC 1/162-21, Avant-projet de rapport sur la situation sociale des travailleurs salariés agricoles, 25/02/1960.
- 13.
See note 12.
- 14.
Archives of European Integration (hereafter AEI), Assemblée Parlmentaire européenne, Document de séances, Rapport intérimaire sur la situation sociale des travailleurs salariés agricoles, retrieved from http://aei.pitt.edu/88761/1/1960-61.61.106.pdf
- 15.
HAEU, PE0-45, Rapport de Hendrikus Vredeling sur les problèmes de structure, y compris les problèmes sociaux propres à l’agriculture, dans la CEE, juin 1959.
- 16.
AEI, Assemblée parlementaire européenne, Débats, Octobre 1959, nr. 15, Session de Juin 1959, p. 62, retrieved from http://aei.pitt.edu/64304/1/A6689.pdf
- 17.
Under the consultation procedure, the European Parliament only had an advisory role in the Community legislative process. It could approve or reject a legislative proposal, or propose amendments to it, but the Council was not legally obliged to consider it when adopting legislation.
- 18.
HAEU, BAC 6/1977-262, Résolution adoptée par l’Assemblée Parlementaire européenne le 8 mars 1961, relative à la situation sociale des travailleurs salariés agricoles, no date.
- 19.
See note 11.
- 20.
HAEU, BAC 6/1977-713, Annexes au Procès-verbal de la XXVIIème réunion de la Section spécialisée de l’agriculture, Exposé de M. Canonge sur le problème de la formation professionnelle, Bruxelles, 17/01/1962/.
- 21.
See note 20.
- 22.
HAEU, BAC 6/1977-681, Council Decision of 2 April 1963 establishing the general principles for the implementation of a common policy on vocational training, Brussels 1963.
- 23.
HAEU, BAC 6/1977-714, Projet d’avis du Comité consultatif paritaire pour les problèmes sociaux des travailleurs salariés agricoles sur l’action communautaire à entreprendre en matière de formation professionnelle des travailleurs salariés agricoles, 25/07/1976.
- 24.
See note 23.
- 25.
HAEU, BAC 6/1977-680, Communication de la Commission au Conseil, Programmes d’action en matière de politique commune de formation professionnelle en général et dans l’agriculture, Bruxelles, 5/05/1965.
- 26.
HAEU, BAC 6/1977-715, Proposition de règlement du Conseil concernant des contributions communautaires en faveur de la rééducation professionnelle des personnes travaillant en agriculture et désirant se reconvertir à l’intérieur de l’agriculture, Bruxelles, 27/01/1965.
- 27.
See note 25. Partie II: Programme d’action en matière de politique commune de formation professionnelle dans l’agriculture.
- 28.
HAEU, BAC 6/1977-680, Avis sur le projet de “Programme d’action en matière de politique commune de formation professionnelle dans l’agriculture,” Bruxelles, 19/03/1965.
- 29.
HAEU, CES 20/1940, Projet d’étude sur les “programmes d’action en matière de politique commune de formation professionnelle en général et dans l’agriculture,” Bruxelles, 1/08/1976.
- 30.
EUR-Lex, Council Directive 72/161/EEC of 17 April 1972 concerning the provision of socio-economic guidance for and the acquisition of occupational skills by persons engaged in agriculture, retrieved from https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A31972L0161
- 31.
See note 30.
- 32.
EUR-Lex, Council Directive of 30 June 1981 amending Directive 72 / 161 / EEC concerning the provision of socio-economic guidance for and the acquisition of occupational skills by persons engaged in agriculture, retrieved from https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A31981L0529
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Germond, C. (2019). Agriculture with a Social Twist: Vocational Education and Training in the Common Agricultural Policy. In: St. John, S., Murphy, M. (eds) Education and Public Policy in the European Union. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04230-1_5
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