31. 12.81 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 348/27 
Opinion on the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy 
The opinion of the Committee is not based on any text. 
A. LEGAL BASIS FOR THE OPINION 
At its 186th plenary session held on 25 and 26 March 1981 the Committee, acting on a 
proposal from the Bureau, decided to deliver an opinion on the abovementioned subject 
on its own initiative. 
B. OPINION OF THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE 
The Economic and Social Committee prepared its opinion on the above matter at its 
192nd plenary session held in Brussels on 25 and 26 November 1981. 
The full text of the opinion is as follows: 
THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMUTE, 
Having regard to the fourth paragraph of Article 20 
of its Rules of Procedure, 
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the 
European Economic Community, and in particular 
Articles 47 and 197 thereof, 
Having regard to the decision taken by its Bureau on 
24 March 1981, instructing the Section for 
Agriculture to prepare the Committee's work on the 
matter, 
Having regard to previous work on the matter, and in 
particular its Section for Agriculture's Information 
Report on the Common Agricultural Policy of 
23 January 1981, 
Having regard to the opinion issued by the Section 
for Agriculture at its 228th meeting held on 8 October 
1981 and its 229th meeting held on 5 and 
6 November 1981, 
Having regard to the oral report presented by the 
rapporteur, Mr Zinkin, 
Having regard to the discussions at its 192nd plenary 
session held on 25 and 26 November 1981 (session of 
26 November 1981), 
HAS ADOPTED THE FOLLOWING OPINION 
by 81 votes to 24, with 11 abstentions, 
1. General principles 
1.1. In the discussion of the Section for 
Agriculture's Information Report in the CAP (23 January 1981), there was a wide measure of 
agreement that the principles underlying the CAP 
were correct. 
1.2. It is therefore worth repeating these 
principles. 
1.3. The key text is Article 39 of the Treaty of 
Rome, which is worth repeating in full: 
'Article 39 
1. The objectives of the Common Agricultural 
Policy shall be: 
(a) to increase agricultural productivity by 
promoting technical progress and by ensuring 
the rational development of agricultural 
production and the optimum utilization of the 
factors of production, in particular labour: 
(b) thus ensure a fair standard of living for the 
agricultural community, in particular by 
increasing the individual earnings of persons 
engaged in agriculture; 
(c) to stabilize markets; 
(d) to assure the availability of supplies; 
(e) to ensure that supplies reach consumers at 
reasonable prices. 
2. In working out the common agricultural 
policy and the special methods for its application, 
account shall be taken of: 
(a) the particular nature of agricultural activity, 
which results from the social structure of 
agriculture and from structural and natural 
No C 348/28 Official Journal of the European Communities 31. 12. 81 
disparities between the various agricultural 
regions; 
(b) the need to effect the appropriate adjustments 
by degrees; 
(c) the fact that in the Member States agriculture 
constitutes a sector closely linked with the 
economy as a whole.' 
1.4. Article 110, providing for a certain openness to 
world trade, is also important and the Treaty also 
contains specific provision for the possibility of aids 
to worse-placed regions in order to temper the effects 
of competition. 
1.5. Article 43 of the Treaty provided for a 
conference to be held to give body to the policy. The 
declaration at the end of the conference (held at 
Stresa in 1958) emphasized: 
— agriculture's place in the economic and social 
structure; 
— the need both to maintain trade with the outside 
world and to protect agriculture from unfair 
competition; 
— the objectives of rationalizing production through 
market policy and stimulating productivity 
through structural policy; 
— the importance of balance between supply and 
demand, including imports and exports; 
— a prices policy avoiding over-production; 
— aid to disadvantaged regions or farms to enable 
them to adapt; 
— the elimination of national aids contrary to the 
spirit of the Treaty; 
— a remuneration for capital and labour similar to 
that obtained in other occupations through an 
improvement in structures; 
— the improvement of the competitive capacity of 
the family farm; 
— retraining and industrialization as solutions for 
the marginal farm. 
1.6. This declaration provided the basis for the 
concrete proposals put up by the Commission in 
1960, which resulted in a series of basic Regulations 
covering various crops. The Committee's General 
Report(') on the Commission's proposals raised a 
(') General Report on the draft proposal on the drawing up 
and implementing of the common agricultural policy 
pursuant to Article 43 of the Treaty establishing the 
EEC (Rapporteur-General: Mr L. Anchisi) July 1960. large number of the same issues as arise today. For 
instance, the importance of avoiding surpluses. 
1.7. Out of the options permitted by the Treaty in 
Article 40 (common rules on competition, 
coordination of national market organizations, a 
European market organization) for most products a 
European organization of the market was chosen. 
From this choice flowed the three principles which 
are now central to the functioning of the CAP, 
namely a single market and therefore common 
prices, Community preference and financial 
solidarity. 
1.8. These principles have never been defined, and 
there is large room for manoeuvre in their 
application. 
1.8.1. Common prices do not mean that all farmers 
get the same prices, but that any guarantees or aids 
the Community offers must be common; nevertheless 
there are specific aids which are given to 
disadvantaged areas, e.g. mountain and less-
favoured areas. 
1.8.2. Community preference is normally expressed 
through levies or duties for products in which the 
Community is self-sufficient or largely so, and 
through aids where it is a long way from self-
sufficiency. 
1.8.2.1. The import levy on products covered by an 
EEC market regime varies according to the world 
market prices, while in the case of agricultural 
products not subject to a Community market regime 
there is generally an import arrangement, often 
under GATT; this situation often results from 
undertakings given to GATT which have the effect of 
freezing former situations which no longer 
correspond to the realities of today. 
1.8.3. Financial solidarity means that the cost of the 
guarantee section of FEOGA is covered by the 
Community; in the guidance section, the Community 
normally only pays parts, usually the lesser part, of 
the cost of any measures taken. Expenditure by 
Member States on agriculture is indeed higher than 
that of the Community, though half of it is on social 
security. 
1.8.3.1. Such financial solidarity limited to 
agriculture, and incomplete to boot, cannot claim to 
correct all the existing imbalances. Although some 
31. 12.81 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 348/29 
progress has been made, and may still be made, 
towards redistributing money in a more balanced 
way, according to the products and regions involved, 
other compensatory machinery should be 
introduced. 3. Policy approaches 
3.1. The Committee believes that the accepted 
principles of the common agricultural policy entail, 
in practice, certain approaches which need to be 
considered collectively: 
(a) 
2. Reform 
2.1. The main principles of the common 
agricultural policy, as they have thus developed over 
the years, are widely accepted in the Committee, but 
there is an equally general acceptance that there is 
now a need for reform of the CAP. 
2.2. In the nearly quarter of a century which has 
passed since the Treaty came into operation, much 
has changed. The productivity of agriculture has 
greatly increased, so that the Community no longer 
has the fear of dearth, which so concerned consumers 
and industry in the 1950s but, in certain products, a 
problem of surpluses, with consequent effects upon 
the Budget. There has been a growth of both the 
industries which supply to agriculture and of those 
which transform its products, and more services are 
added to food (packaging, for instance, or freezing) 
on its way from the producer to the consumer. 
2.3. In the present Community of Ten the economic 
differences are greater than in the original 
Community of Six. 
2.3.1. Serious distortions are appearing in the way 
the advantages and constraints of belonging to the 
EEC are distributed to the ten Member States. 
2.4. The interests involved, whether farmers, 
consumers, or industry, are more organized and have 
strong, and often differing, views on such matters as 
the level of prices, of Community preference and of 
the production to be desired. 
2.5. Adjustments to this new situation were 
accepted as necessary at the European summit of 
30 May 1980 and the Commission's Report on that 
mandate (COM(81) 300 final) contains the first ideas 
on the framework of such an adjustment. Work is 
proceeding on the detailed facts and figures 
necessary to give precision to the Commission's 
proposals. (b) 
(c) 
(d) The importance attached in the Treaty itself to 
improving the farmer's standard of living 
through higher productivity implies that other 
policies — research, structure — should have 
this improvement of productivity as a prime 
objective. In fixing common producer prices, 
the relevant costs should be those of the 
'efficient farmers' as in the theory of the 
'objective method'. It has been accepted that 
some of the advantages of higher productivity 
should be passed on to the consumer in lower 
prices. 
farmers themselves 
is the comparable 
(e) The objective to which 
attach most importance 
remuneration for land and labour laid down at 
Stresa. 'Comparable' is a difficult concept; 
many farmers, for instance, only have part-time 
occupation on their farms, and land is a very 
special form of capital, whose value is itself 
partly dependent upon the levels of intervention 
and aid under the CAP. Nevertheless, this is a 
fundamental objective, both for economic 
reasons — agriculture must be able to attract in 
the market the capital and skills it needs — and 
for social reasons — those who work in 
agriculture should not be an under-privileged 
section of the Community. 
Reasonable prices for consumers means that the 
policy must consider the efficiency and needs of 
the whole chain all the way down to the 
consumer, including the food-processing 
industry and distribution, since the farmer's 
share of the price the consumer pays is usually 
no more than some 40%. It also means that 
prices must take account not only of the costs 
and income of the productive farmer but also of 
prices outside the Community, in so far as they 
are genuine prices and not simply the result of 
dumping. 
Stability of markets means that Community 
markets have to be sheltered from the often 
violent fluctuations of world market prices. It 
does not, however, mean that they must remain 
unchanged. They can follow a medium-term 
trend. 
Security of supply involves a willingness by the 
consumer or the taxpayer to pay a premium for 
No C 348/30 Official Journal of the European Communities 31. 12. 81 
that production which must be grown within the 
Community because of its vital importance for 
food supplies. Prices for other production, 
particularly for that which can only be sold with 
a subsidy from Community funds, need to be 
fixed more cautiously, and with closer attention 
to prices outside the Community, provided such 
prices reflect the costs of production in the 
major exporting countries. 
(0 Openness to world trade requires that the 
Community should not aim at autarchy at any 
cost, or subsidize export to a greater extent than 
in competitive countries. The Community 
should promote stabilization of world market 
prices by taking part in world-wide agreements 
on agricultural products. 
(g) The emphasis on agriculture's place in the 
economic and social structure, and on the 
importance of the family farm, means that 
policy must take into account the place of 
agriculture as the centre of a complex of 
supplying and processing industries, as the 
creator and preserver of the countryside, and 
as a storehouse of independence and 
entrepreneurial effort, which cannot be allowed 
to be reduced to a limited number of large 
industrial units without a new and deliberate 
political decision. 
(h) The objective of rationalizing production 
through market policy, of balancing internal 
and external supply and demand, and of 
avoiding over-production, means that prices, 
market rules and the management of markets 
must act as a guide to production, must therefore 
encourage the production of items in short 
supply, and must prevent the creation of 
surpluses which could not find outlets in the 
domestic or foreign markets without generating 
excessive costs. A general policy principle must 
be that of structural balance in the market. 
(i) The Treaty's specific provision for the 
possibility of aid to the worse-off regions and the 
Stresa insistence on aid to disadvantaged 
regions and farms require a series of policies for 
their application, over and beyond the usual 
structure of intervention, levies and aids. Some 
of these policies need to be permanent. The 
handicaps of the mountainous and less-favoured 
areas, for instance, will not go away; if they are 
not to be deserted, special measures of long 
continuance are required for them. Other 
policies are essentially transitional. Farms which 
are too small, or farmers who are too old, will 
eventually disappear. What is required is policies, for instance on structure or pensions, 
which will ease the process. On a more 
permanent basis, farms which would otherwise 
be too small can be made viable if other part-
time work can be found for the farmer and his 
familiy, for instance in industry, forestry or 
tourism. Farmers whose level of productivity is 
low can be helped by advice and training. 
(j) In the question of national aids, distinctions 
must be made. Social security is properly a 
matter for national policy and responsibility 
although a measure of Community 
harmonization would be desirable. Certain aids, 
help with interest, for instance, are already 
controlled by Community law; what is 
important here is to see that the law is enforced. 
Other aids, general additions to income, for 
instance, are a distortion of competition and 
should be prohibited. The temptation to give 
these aids will always be high so long as the CAP 
is not accompanied by common economic and 
monetary policies, so that levels of inflation in 
particular are very different from Member State 
to Member State. 
3.2. The Committee believes that, in its proposals 
for the reform of the CAP, the Commission does not 
intend to challenge these principles. All its comments 
on those proposals should be read with that belief in 
mind. 
4. Strategy 
4.1. An important innovation on the part of the 
Commission is to develop a long-term strategy by 
defining objectives for products. 
4.2. These objectives will be based on a forward 
view of the Community's own requirements, its likely 
imports and the exports it wishes to make. 
4.3. The Committee welcomes this proposal. 
4.4. The Committee has long held the view that a 
strategy was necessary and that without one the CAP 
31. 12. 81 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 348/31 
was at constant risk of becoming not a policy but a 
set of ad hoc decisions. 
4.5. The Committee recognizes that the laying 
down of objectives will not take the CAP out of 
policies. The annual fight over prices will doubtless 
continue. But the fundamental political decisions 
will become the more long-term ones, what the 
Community wishes to do with its great resource of 
land, what part it wishes to play in world trade and in 
the feeding of the hungry, to what extent, and for 
which products, it attaches importance to self-
sufficiency, and how far it wishes to permit imports 
(or subsidize, or not subsidize exports) for reasons of 
political advantage or solidarity. 
4.6. The detailed decisions will depend on studies 
the Committee does not have available to it, and 
which are still being made. It can here only lay down 
some principles. 
5. Deciding the strategy 
5.1. In deciding how far the Community should be 
self-sufficient, one of the considerations must be the 
relative costs of producing the product in the 
Community or elsewhere. 
5.1.1. In making this comparison, however, 
allowance must be made for the more fragmented 
structure of Community agriculture, which entails 
extra costs. 
5.1.2. Moreover, the comparison must be with areas 
of large production, not with small and particularly 
favoured areas capable of growing only a fraction of 
the Community's present production. 
5.2. Finally, the basis for the comparison of prices 
inside and outside the Community must be, not 
world market prices, which often do not bear any 
close relation to costs, but the prices guaranteed in 
the home market. 
5.3. The Community should aim at a greater 
specialization of production according to the natural 
advantages in soil and climate of each region. 
5.4. Products and their identical, or almost 
identical, substitutes should be considered together. 
5.5. The larger the exports which are envisaged for 
a product the more its price should be fixed keeping 
in mind the way world prices are likely to go over 
the longer term. This is particularly important where the Community's exports are large enough for their 
size itself to have a large impact on the prices 
received for them. 
5.5.1. In markets where the Community's exports 
are important, the objectives fixed for them should 
take into account the objectives of the other major 
exporters. Agreement on minimum and maximum 
prices, levels of reserve stocks and perhaps even 
quotas on the usual commodity agreement model 
would be helpful in reducing fluctuations and 
ensuring the market was profitable for all its 
participants. 
5.5.2. The strategy should allow for any quantities 
in framework contracts where firm sales are likely to 
result, for instance, where the importing countries 
have provided for these quantities in their long-term 
plans or where they have a special relationship with 
the Community. The Committee assumes that any 
exports agreed on will be made by the normal trade 
channels. The actual exports should be open to 
private traders. 
5.5.3. One cannot conceive over a long period of a 
policy of exports based on subsidies which are 
excessive in relation to the market price, though high 
subsidies may be necessary in years of exceptional 
production for climatic reasons. 
5.5.4. But it is reasonable for subsidies to be given 
to build up the Community's position in those 
markets and for those products where the increase in 
population and economic growth are likely to lead to 
a considerably larger demand in the late '80s. The 
caveat here is that, in the poorer developing 
countries, it will often be more appropriate to help 
them to develop their own production. 
6. The processing industries 
6.1. Since the Community was formed there has 
been a steady increase in the proportion of 
agricultural products which is processed. Any 
strategy concerning these products must therefore 
take into account likely developments in the 
processing industries. 
6.1.1. They sometimes need rather different 
products from the fresh market, e.g. a higher dry 
matter of content in onions for dehydration, a 
particular level of acidity in oranges for fruit juice or 
a long grain rice which will separate fully on 
cooking. 
6.1.2. They may also have a special need for 
standardization for automatic package lines or for 
appearance in a can. 
No C 348/32 Official Journal of the European Communities 31. 12. 81 
6.2. The Community gains in added value and in 
employment if its agricultural exports are made 
processed rather than raw. There should therefore be 
no discrimination in export refunds between raw and 
processed products, between live cattle and meat for 
instance, or between sugar and sugar incorporated in 
chocolate. 
6.2.1. It would help industry if it could fix its 
refunds at the time when it buys the relevant raw 
materials and if the level could be fixed over longer 
periods; constant changes of price upset the markets 
of products with brand goodwill. 
6.3. The exports of processed goods sometimes go 
to different markets or to different classes of 
customer from those who buy the raw products and 
this must be taken into account when formulating 
export strategies. 
7. Food aid 
7.1. All the forecasts are that the number of people 
in the world who are hungry (l) will go up over the 
next decade. Public opinion in the Community will 
doubtless, therefore, as a matter of human solidarity, 
be willing to see a gradual increase in the food aid 
given. 
7.1.1. This aid needs to be treated as part of the 
development of the countries to which it is given; it 
should not be looked on as a way of disposing of the 
Community's surpluses; except for short-term crises 
like famines, it should be planned to cover several 
years, and its cost should not be debited to the 
common agricultural policy. 
7.1.2. Some of this aid might be provided as long-
term loans at very low rates of interest as is done 
under the American PL 480. Some recipient countries 
prefer it that way for they can then use any proceeds 
of sale for other development projects. 
8. Marketing 
8.1. Objectives are for the future, not for the 
present. They must therefore take into account 
probable changes in consumer demand, both those 
(•) OJ No C 310, 30. 11. 1981, p. 1. which result from economic and social change and 
those which are the fruit of the efforts and the 
inventiveness of the researcher, the farmer and the 
agro-industrialist. 
8.2. Agriculture is, moreover, faced with a more 
general problem. Demand for food within the 
Community, which is already on a whole well-fed, 
and whose population is hardly growing, is stagnant, 
whilst production continues to increase by perhaps 
2% per year. 
8.3. The Committee considers, therefore, that the 
Community must devote a much greater effort than 
in the past to the development of new outlets, to 
marketing. 
8.4. Market research is needed to understand the 
causes and the direction of the change in consumer 
habits and what it is the consumer is likely to 
want. 
8.5. Special emphasis must be placed on the 
improvement of quality, especially where health is at 
stake. It is the Community's job to lay down clear 
quality standards and to ensure effective quality 
checks. 
8.5.1. Products of low quality should not be 
accepted into intervention. 
8.6. The Community already gives certain aids for 
marketing, but this does not constitute a policy in 
itself. The Committee believes that what the 
Community now needs, especially for the products in 
surplus, is not merely a strategy as expressed in the 
objectives, but a marketing policy of its own. 
8.6.1. In this respect, strengthening the economic 
organization of producers is also a means of 
improving the way in which goods are placed on the 
market. Considerable improvements could be made 
in a number of sectors (particularly fruit and 
vegetables) if suppliers were to join forces. 
9. Research, advice, productivity 
9.1. A strategy and a marketing policy have to be 
matched by a policy on research, on the advice to be 
given to farmers and on the directions in which 
productivity can most profitably be increased. 
9.2. These policies have hitherto been primarily for 
the Member States to formulate. Once the 
Community has objectives it will need to coordinate 
and guide the policies of the Member States in these 
fields also. 
31. 12.81 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 348/33 
9.3. Finally, if better use is to be made of the funds 
devoted to agronomical research by the Member 
States, there must be coordination at Community 
level; this would put a halt to the dissipation and 
waste of effort due to the present lack of real 
coordination. 
9.4. The Committee believes that, over the last 
thirty years, effort has been concentrated on 
increasing production of those items which the 
Community has always produced and on increasing 
the productivity of labour even if that meant being 
lavish with capital and energy. 
9.5. Now there is mass unemployment, energy is 
dear and nominal interest rates are high, the 
Committee considers that there is need for some new 
orientations. 
9.6. First, much more consideration must be given 
to the possibilities of agriculture as a source of 
employment. 
9.6.1. It will often be better for a small farmer to 
stay on the land even if it only gives him and his 
family occupation part time if policy can be directed 
towards finding them other employment for the 
remaining part of their time. 
9.6.2. Employment is still likely to go down as 
farmers die or retire and with the improvement in 
productivity which is necessary if farmers are to 
achieve incomes more comparable with the rest of the 
economy. 
9.6.3. There are areas which still have to undergo 
elementary mechanization. 
9.6.4. But the exodus from the land should be lower 
than it has been in the past 20 years. 
9.7. Secondly, now that energy is so much more 
expensive, research and advice should be directed 
towards methods of production which are less 
hungry for energy. 
9.7.1. This should not only directly affect the design 
of tractors but also indirectly the use of pesticides, 
fertilizers, packaging and transport. 
9.7.2. If, for instance, a wheat could be developed 
which fixed nitrogen, the savings in energy would be 
large. 9.7.3. There may also be possibilities of crops which 
could themselves be used to produce energy; timber 
is the obvious example. 
9.8. Thirdly, biogenetics now offers opportunities 
for improving specific qualities of particular crops in 
such a way that Community production could 
become more competitive with imports. 
9.9. In the seed sector, it is in the Community's 
interest to promote and coordinate public and 
private research in order to avoid excessive 
dependence on outside sources. 
9.10. There needs to be shift of emphasis and 
advice, and advice on technical and economic 
matters also needs to be brought up to date. What is 
important for most products is not maximum yield 
but minimum costs and maximum profits. Much 
more attention needs to be given to whether the last 
marginal quintal or litre repays its cost of 
production. 
10. Surpluses 
10.1. The imbalance on the markets in a number of 
farm products can be remedied in various ways. 
Supplies could be limited, demand could be 
stimulated (marketing, research and advice), prices 
could be lowered, some form of farmers' co-
responsibility could be imposed, export markets 
could be developed. The Committee agrees with the 
Commission that the form adopted will need to vary 
with the product. It would add that it need not 
remain the same over time. There are, however, some 
principles which the Committee considers must be 
respected. 
10.2. The idea of maintaining a balance between 
supply and demand should not be considered solely 
in terms of the domestic Community market. It 
should also be considered in relation to the external 
market by making provision for possible financial 
consequences. 
10.3. Any method chosen to bring supply and 
demand into balance must be tempered by the need 
to ensure an adequate level of income for the farmer. 
Agriculture must be able to compete with the rest of 
the economy for the factors of production it needs 
and particularly for people with a dynamic 
entrepreneurial bent. 
10.4. In bringing supply and demand into balance, 
the Community must balance the need to punish the 
No C 348/34 Official Journal of the European Communities 31. 12. 81 
farmer who has not increased his production against 
the importance of not ossifying the Community's 
production pattern and giving the enterprising some 
hope of expansion. 
10.5. Policy must be coherent. Development plans 
should not aim at a larger production of items 
already in surplus, for instance, nor should 
artificially low prices for energy delay the changes 
which a higher price ought to bring about. 
10.6. On the other hand, one must also prevent 
abrupt energy price increases from endangering 
basically viable production. 
Forestry policy 
11.1. The Committee would reiterate the conviction 
expressed in the Committee's opinion of July 
1978 (•), that the Community ought to have a forestry 
policy. This would both increase the Community's 
supply of home-grown timber and ease the 
imbalance in certain product markets by providing 
an alternative use for land and alternative 
occupations for its owners. 
12. Disadvantaged regions and marginal farmers 
12.1. The Treaty itself recognized that common 
prices and conditions of competition would leave 
some areas unacceptably badly-off 
12.1.1. These are not only Mediterranean areas; 
much of Ireland, parts of Scotland and Wales, the 
French Overseas Departments must all be included. 
Nor does it include all Mediterranean areas; the Po 
valley is not disadvantaged; Mediterranean regions 
are defined by the crops they grow, not 
geographically. 
12.2. However, the Committee agrees with the 
Commission both that many Mediterranean areas are 
disadvantaged, and that this is the result of a complex 
of factors. 
12.2.1. Structures need improving, marketing is 
sometimes inadequate, the infrastructure, including 
training, may be relatively poor. 
(i) OJ No C 230, 8. 9. 1980. 12.2.2. Getting rid of these handicaps requires 
action which goes much beyond the CAP and the 
Committee looks forward eagerly to the results of the 
experiment in integrated development, including 
expenditure from the Regional and Social Funds, on 
which the Commission has embarked and in which 
the Committee sees great promise. 
12.2.3. Many of the disadvantaged areas are 
beautiful, and there are often possibilities in 
combining farming with tourism or crafts or rural 
industries or forestry, or a pension from work in a 
town. 
12.2.4. All of this would make possible a much 
smaller measure of social upheaval than if incomes 
are brought to a reasonable level only by an 
alteration in structure to make every farm viable as a 
full-time operation. 
12.3. At present, nearly all the money spent on the 
CAP is spent in the Guarantee Section of EAGGF. A 
proper structural policy would require a better 
balance between the Guarantee Section and the 
Guidance Section. 
12.3.1. The average rate of utilization of the 
Guarantee Section has been 96-5%, as against 3-5% 
for the Guidance Section. The principle of total 
financial solidarity has only been used to support 
prices and maintain markets. On the other hand the 
Member States have consistently had to bear between 
50 and 75% of the cost of structural policy. The fact 
that the funds allocated have not been taken up 
cannot therefore be used as an argument for freezing 
them at present level or subsequently cutting them 
back. It calls rather for more rapid, more effective 
procedures based on the principle of solidarity. 
12.4. The Mediterranean regions have one special 
grievance. Many of their products do not receive 
treatment equivalent to that given to such northern 
products as milk and sugar and cereals. 
12.4.1. The Mediterranean producer of these does, 
of course, have the same protection as his northern 
confrere; the highest price for milk is in Italy. 
12.4.2. Costs there, however, are the highest also. 
But such specifically Mediterranean products as 
most fruit and vegetables are less thoroughly 
protected, and are more affected by the agreements 
for imports on special terms which the Community 
has made, mainly with developing countries. 
31. 12.81 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 348/35 
12.4.3. The Commission's proposals would make 
the gap smaller by reducing the guarantees for certain 
northern products; and effective guarantees are more 
difficult for perishables. Some evening-up is, 
however, possible; some fruits and vegetables, for 
instance, at present receive no protection at all, 
except a relatively limited protection against 
imports. 
12.4.4. The Committee, therefore, welcomes the 
emphasis the Commission is now placing upon the 
principle of equivalence. Equivalence does not of 
course mean that everything should be treated in the 
same way; it does mean that the total effect of all the 
policies adopted should not discriminate against 
Mediterranean farmers. 
13. The marginal farmer 
13.1.1. The marginal farmer is an extremely 
difficult problem. No acceptable set of prices will 
give the man with a farm that provides only part-time 
occupation, or on which yields are very small, an 
adequate living from his farming. 
13.1.2. Other policies have to be developed; 
regional, social industrial, educational. Structures 
have been improving as farmers die or retire, and this 
will continue. 
13.1.3. But it needs to be supplemented by 
opportunities for education and training which make 
it possible for those who wish to leave farming to do 
so for satisfactory jobs in other walks of life, where 
such jobs are available. 
13.1.4. More emphasis needs to be placed on 
providing the chance of part-time work, perhaps by 
some form of social security payment equivalent to 
that given to an industrial worker on short-time. All 
of these possibilities require thorough investigation. 
13.2. The Commission has proposed direct income 
payments. If these are to be adequate, they will be 
expensive. They would also be difficult to administer, 
even if eligibility were confined to people with no 
income outside farming; putting a figure on a small 
farmer's income is notoriously hard. 
13.2.1. Nevertheless, the Committee considers that, 
if a workable scheme can be devised, it would help. 
It, therefore, awaits with interest the Commission's detailed proposals. However, it is important that any 
scheme should lay down Community-wide criteria 
for the Member States to follow, and that it should be 
binding upon them. 
14. Management 
14.1. The Committee observes that there are many 
complaints about the administration of the 
Community's policies. 
14.2. If Member States are short of money, or 
simply of good bureaucrats, policies are half-
implemented or not implemented at all. 
14.3. The Commission itself does not always 
manage its exports effectively. 
14.3.1. The quantities of cereals authorized, for 
instance, swing violently and sometimes the 
Community is out of the market altogether, which is 
not a good way to build up confidence in buyers or to 
get the highest prices over time. 
14.3.2. The level of restitution is often not neutral 
between raw and processed products, or between 
meat and live animals. 
14.4. The Committee does not wish to go into the 
detail of individual instances. 
14.4.1. It would, however, emphasize first, the 
importance of managing markets in the closest 
consultation with the professional organizations 
concerned and, secondly, of proper control over the 
implementation of policy by the Member States, a 
control which the Committee is happy to see the 
Commission has now proclaimed its intention of 
asserting and, thirdly, of a commercial speed and 
flexibility of decision. 
15. The budget 
15.1. The CAP has had many successes in achieving 
the aims laid down in the Treaty and at Stresa. Some 
of them, as with productivity, have been spectacular. 
The criticism which is now being more and more 
directed at the policy is inter alia the result of the 
sharp increase in its budgetary cost in recent years, 
which is in turn largely caused by the imbalances in 
certain markets. 
15.2. If the many merits of the policy are to be 
preserved, it is therefore important that the 
budgetary cost be controlled. 
No C 348/36 Official Journal of the European Communities 31. 12. 81 
15.2.1. How much that will happen depends upon 
the choice of objectives and the methods of financing 
of any surpluses above these objectives. 
15.2.2. But control is essential in order, first, to 
restore the CAP to the place it held in public 
affections in the 1960s, secondly, to enable the Community to begin on other policies without which, 
as the Committee has pointed out in the past, the 
CAP will continue to stand painfully alone, and 
finally, to remove a block in the way of the increase 
in the Community's own resources which is required 
both for these other policies and for the forthcoming 
enlargement to Spain and Portugal. 
Done at Brussels, 26 November 1981. 
The Chairman 
of the Economic and Social Committee 
Tomas ROSEINGRAVE 
APPENDIX 
To the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee 
Voting by name on the opinion as a whole 
The following members, present or represented, voted for the opinion: 
Mr Amundsen 
Mr Arena 
Mr Bagliano 
Mr Benigni 
Mr Bernaert 
Mr Berns 
Mr Blamoutsis 
Mr Blasig 
Mrs Bredima 
Mr Butler 
Mr deCaffarelli 
Mr Cammann 
Mr van Campen 
Mr Carroll 
Mr Chabrol 
Mr Clavel 
Mr du Closel 
Mr Couture 
Mr Curlis 
Mr Daul 
Mr de Bievre 
Mr de Bruyn 
Mr de Tavernier 
Mr Emo Capodilista 
Mr Evain 
Mr Gallacher 
Mr Georgiou 
Mr Gingembre 
Mr Glesener Mr van Greunsven 
Mr Hall 
Mr Hatry 
Mr Hennig 
Mrs Heuser 
Mr Hicks-Beach 
Mr Jakobsen 
Mr Jaschick 
Mr Jonker W. 
Mr Kenna 
Mr Kolbenschlag 
Mr Lane 
Mr Lauga 
Mr Laur 
Mr Laval 
Mr Law 
Mr Leddy 
Mr Loccufier 
Mr Loebl 
Mr Loughrey 
Mr Marvier 
Mr Masprone 
Mr Mills 
Mr Morselli 
Mr Muhr 
Mrs Nielsen M. 
Mr Paggi 
Mr Papadopoulos 
Mrs Patterson 
31. 12. 81 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 348/37 
Mr Pearson Mr Staratzke 
Mr de Precigout Mr Theisen 
Mr Renaud Mr van der Veen 
Mr Rizos Mr Wagenmans 
Miss Roberts Mr Wagner 
Mr Rollinger Mrs Weber 
Mr Romoli Mr Wick 
Mr Rouzier Mr Williams 
Mr Savini Mr Wylie 
Mr Scharrenbroich Mr Zinkin 
Mr Schneider Mr Zunkler 
Mr Schnieders 
The following members, present or represented, voted against the opinion: 
Mr. Cavazzuti Mr Massabiaux 
Mr Chappie Mr Masucci 
Mr Dassis Mr Meraviglia 
Mr Douros Mr Militello 
Mr Drago Mr Neumann 
Mr Drain Mr Ognibene 
Mr Dunet Mr Piga 
Mrs Gredal Mr Rainero 
Mr Hilkens Mr Scalia 
Mr Jenkins Mrs Strobel 
Mr Karakitsos Mr Vanni 
Mr Kirschen Mr Zoli 
The following members, present or represented, abstained: 
Mr. Basnett Mrs Engelen-Kefer 
Mr Buckton Mr Fredersdorf 
Mr Cremer Mr Hemmer 
Mr Debunne Mr Milne 
Mr de Grave Mr Nierhaus 
Mr Delourme