Brian Gardner's Blog

Archives for CAP reform.budget

COMAGRI TAKES POSITIVE STEP ON CAP WASTE

January 28, 2013

Cutting down the range of non-agricultural entities which are currently able to claim EU farm income subsidies is one of the important positive changes in the operation of the European Union’s agriculture policy now being recommended by the European Parliament’s agriculture committee ( Com-Agri). The committee voted in favour of this and more than 30… » read more

Posted by Brian Gardner

Food & Consumers

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FARM MINISTERS PUT BRAKES ON REFORM PROGRESS

March 16, 2011

The most recent meetings of the European Union’s farm ministers have given a pretty clear indication that any changes which may take place in the common agricultural policy are unlikely to be more than cosmetic. After much wrangling in the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) and in the Council of Ministers itself, a completely anodyne… » read more

Posted by Brian Gardner

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NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN

February 9, 2011

Much fuss is currently being made in Austria and elsewhere of latest revelations on fraudulent exploitation of the Common Agricultural Policy. In “The Black Book of Agriculture – the intrigue of agricultural politics”, one Hans Weiss has opened the lid on fraud and misapplication of CAP subsidies in Austria. The book made headlines in Austria,… » read more

Posted by Brian Gardner

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Brian Gardner's Blog

Commentary on European developments from the perspective of long term professional interest in European and international trade, agriculture and food policy, nurtured over three decades spent in Brussels observing and analysing the development of the CAP.

Post Brexit, new relationships between the UK and the EU and the UK and the rest of the world are a major pre-occupation. My book ‘European Agriculture: Policies, Production and Trade’ is a distillation of this experience. More recently, my analysis of the politics and technicalities of feeding 9 billion people by the mid-century is  ‘Global Food Futures – Feeding the world in 2050’, published by Bloomsbury. I continue to observe European  policy as it copes with the challenges of UK isolationism, Europe-US challenges, trade liberalisation, climate change and other environmental problems. My assessment of the realities for UK agriculture after 2020 are  set out in a recent report for Agra Europe: Preparing for Brexit.


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