page_title: Common Agricultural Policy
section_title: Beginnings
hierarchical_section_title: Common Agricultural Policy / Background / Beginnings
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Portraits von Staatssekretär Hallstein
context_page_description: The Common Agricultural Policy is the agricultural policy of the European Union. It implements a system of agricultural subsidies and other programmes. It was introduced in 1962 and has undergone several changes since then to reduce the cost and to also consider rural development in its aims. It has been criticised on the grounds of its cost, and its environmental and humanitarian impacts.
context_section_description: The Spaak Report of 1956 stated that a European common market that excluded agriculture was unthinkable. It argued that security of food supply was paramount and raised a series of questions about agriculture that needed to be answered by policy-makers. The Treaty of Rome, signed in March 1957, established the European Economic Community (EEC) and it was mainly due to the French pressure that the Treaty included agriculture. However, due to disagreements within the Six over agricultural policy, the articles on agriculture were vague and policy making was left until after the Treaty had been signed.
  Article 39.1 of the Treaty set out the objectives of the CAP: to increase productivity through technical progress and the best use of the factors of production (such as labour); to ensure a fair standard of living for communities employed in agriculture; to stabilise markets; to secure the availability of supplies; and to enforce fair prices. Article 39.2 stated that policy makers must take into account three factors: the circumstances of each agricultural activity due to the social structure of agricultural communities and the inequalities between richer and poorer regions; the need to act gradually to allow agriculture sufficient time to adjust; and to remember that agriculture was heavily integrated in the wider economy.
  Article 40 provided for the common organisation of markets and common prices, along with a fund to pay for it. Article 41 allowed for the introduction of additional measures to implement Article 39, such as the co-ordination of vocational education and research, the "dissemination of agricultural knowledge" and the encouragement of consumption of certain goods. Article 42 allowed the Council of the Community to decide how far the regulations on competition could apply to agriculture. This Article also allowed them to grant aid.
  During 3–12 July 1958 in Stresa, the Community held an agricultural conference attended by agricultural ministers from member states and the President of the European Commission, Walter Hallstein, along with observers representing agriculture. Three working parties at the conference investigated: the current state of agriculture and the agricultural policies of member states; the short-term effects of the implementation of the Rome Treaty; and the long-term aims of the CAP. In a speech to the conference, Hallstein complained of urbanisation that was leading to rural depopulation and he lamented the "clash of cultures" in which rural life and rural values were considered inferior. Hallstein also reflected on the Cold War threat from communism:
  It is the core of Europe's achievements which is under threat: a whole civilization which rests on the inalienable freedom and dignity of the individual...this tragedy of liberty is also a tragedy of the rural class. Let us look around us, and, alas, we have not far to look; the rural class is its first victim. It is for this reason that we are convinced that the European rural class will count among the most trustworthy pillars of our unified European market. Because its fate is also at stake, and is one of the first threatened. In this room there is no one whose family tree doesn't reach back, sooner or later, to farming roots. We know what the rural class means to Europe, not only through its economic values, but also by its moral and social values.
  The conference's Final Resolution argued for the vital importance of agriculture in economic and social life and expressed their unanimous wish to preserve the character of European farming, which was predominately based on small-size, family holdings. They agreed that it was necessary to help these farms increase their economic capacity and competitiveness. They also advocated structural changes to rationalise and cheapen production, which was intended to improve productivity. The Resolution also included a commitment to a price policy.
  Therefore, during 1958–1959, the Commission drafted the CAP and the Assembly commissioned reports into agriculture. The Commission submitted draft proposals in No
caption: Walter Hallstein, President of the European Commission during the CAP's formative years.
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