Unit 1 Micro: CAP Reforms Are Watered Down

The struggle to achieve meaningful and significant reform of Europe's controversial and hugely expensive farm support system will probably go on for many years. The latest attempt at changing the basis for payments made by the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) appears to have fallen foul of intensive lobbying by farm groups in some of Europe's largest and wealthiest countries.In this BBC news video Roger Harribin reports on the watering down of reform proposals. The CAP began in 1962 as a way to increase food production. It costs around $75bn (£48.7bn) per year in subsidies to farmers, funded by taxpayers. The Commission wants farmers to earn some of their subsidies, for example by protecting the environment, but farm ministers are fighting back. The subsidies available to some of the largest farm businesses can top Euro 1 million each year and they seem set to stay.