This Guardian editorial looks at all the contradictions inherent in the EU agricultural policy (CAP), and launches a scathing attack which, one week later, received a piqued response (Reasons to keep Europe's CAP, The Guardian 13-07-2010) from the Scottish Lib-Dem europarliamentarian, G. Lyon, relator in a report on CAP reform. Lyon indicates that, for the first time, funding is being tied to ecological practices. The editorial highlighted the many incongruities, from the financing of mega-companies to subsidies for the relatives of former agriculture ministers in several countries (all available online at http://farmsubsidy.org/). Hence the call to abolish the CAP, for which Barroso, just month earlier, promised radical reforms, in favour of smaller-scale incentives for eco-sustainable production. If this is not done, the editorial concludes, one day the CAP – which still now accounts for something like one half of the community budget – will collapse under the weight of its contradictions. But that day is still far off.
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