The Common Agricultural Policy 2021-2027: a new history for European agriculture

Contributing to the ongoing debate on the future of European agriculture and rural areas, the study states that, in the light of the present historical contingen- cy, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) will need to support the reconciliation between the target objective of competitive agriculture with that of a resilient agri-food system able to develop constant benefits for the entire EU community. Historically, flexibility has been the main incremental feature of the European CAP reforms. For the programming period 2021-2027, the European Commission has presented a com- pletely new model of CAP governance characterized by less detailed rules and more attention to performance, which implies a greater freedom of action for each Member State, but also greater responsibility. The CAP has evolved over time and so today the criticized limits of the European intervention can be considered outdated.