Lower Euro budget ceiling after CAP cost cuts

17 September 1997

Lower Euro budget ceiling after CAP cost cuts

THE European Commission will propose a European spending budget ceiling of 1.15% of European Union (EU) gross domestic product next year. This is thanks in part to reduced outlays on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

Farm spending still accounts for nearly 50% of the annual EU budget.

But reform of CAP has been met with stiff opposition from the powerful Bavarian farm lobby, which has made it difficult for the Bonn government to support the changes. When farm ministers met recently in Brussels, the German representative was the minister most implacably opposed to CAP reform.

• Financial Times, Comment and Analysis, 17/09/97 page 28