The failure of the Common Agricultural Policy of 2014-2020 to green European agriculture and the influence of lobby groups: A study into the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy and how farmer lobby groups influence sustainable agriculture policies

Abstract

When Commission-Juncker went into office in 2014 the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union went into effect. The CAP was introduced in 1962 with the goal to provide the EU with a stable food supply. Over the years, the CAP became bigger and more complicated, moving away from a production-oriented policy, policies on modernization and quota were implemented. In recent years, the CAP has been increasingly criticized for being too complicated and being too unproductive. The CAP of 2014 was announced as revolutionary in its ambitions to make European agriculture greener and more sustainable. In the end, none of these ambitions were met, and the situation even got worse in many parts of the European Union. When this CAP was proposed its ambitions were high, but they were watered down by big farmer lobby groups and agro-industrial players in the European Union, leading to a CAP that was not effective. Using a systematic literature review and document analysis this paper explores how lobby groups work and their impact on policy making in the European Union.