journal of european integration history revue d'histoire de l ...

134Book reviews – Comptes rendus – Buchbesprechungenof the CAP doesn’t rest on a real historical analysis of the main European economic policy,but is most often restricted to observations or to general considerations, as is demonstratedby the short summary of the history of the CAP (pp.19-24).The relevance of their summary reflects their training background as rural economists,but from a point of view of political science, their study, despite their actual experienceacquired within official institutions in Belgium, is not very thorough. In short, the content isrich by the volume of information provided, but remains mainly descriptive. A fundamentalanalysis of the evolution of the CAP, of its working, its achievements and failures, itsreforms, the successive historical choices and the prospects for the future, shows up onlyoccasionally and at the end of the work (chapter 9 and conclusions).A more detailed study reveals that nearly a third of this book is devoted to GATT and tothe repercussions on the CAP of the agreement reached with a view to liberalizingagriculture, following the Uruguay round (chapter 5 and 6). Given the disproportionateimportance attached to the external dimension of the CAP, it seems as if this Europeanpolicy were in fact only an appendage of a world policy for the marketing of agriculturalproduce and foodstuffs. The study of this question however is very interesting and welldeveloped. The emphasis is rightly put on the consequences of the liberalization ofagricultural trade that have led at European level, to adjustments of the commonorganization of the markets (COMs). The authors insist on the episodes of the discussion fora growing integration of the CAP into global trade, an integration, which the WorldOrganization of Trade (WTO) has to attend to. They give many details on the process ofglobalization that varies according to the sectors of agricultural produce. But they merelypresent the evolution of Community support and the protection system towards thirdcountries without assessing its consequences for the European agriculture in the long run.It should be noted that they do absolutely not refer to Pierre Baudin’s 1 work relating tothe COMs and to the works of Claude Blumann 2 and Valérie Adam, who have dissected themechanisms of Community protection and support from the origins of the CAP up to thepresent day. Blumann has analyzed in detail the period of 1958-1990 and Adam the periodfollowing the break of 1992, trying to investigate the repercussions of the decisions reachedfor the future of the CAP. One of the major weaknesses of this work, considering itshistorical ambition, is therefore to have neglected the basic works on the CAP, as is shownby the bibliography. And the authors take care not to take a stand as committed economistson the scope of the measures scheduled for the coming years.In chapter 7, the prospect for the 3d millennium is touched upon, but the approachremains general and technical and is based on the Commission’s proposal of 1997: Agenda2000, that is given a disproportionate attention compared with the decisions reached inBerlin in spring 1999, decisions that will serve as reference for the period 2000-2006 and forthe mid-term review in 2003. It is particularly regrettable that the authors didn’t consider itrelevant to put the emphasis more clearly on a new deal of the CAP, following the break of1992 (Mac Sharry reform): the decision of the council of ministers for Agriculture to take aninterest in the second pillar of the CAP: the socio-structural pillar, as planned at theintergovernmental agricultural conference of Stresa, in July 1958. This completes thecommercial pillar which is made up of two sections, namely an internal section: thecommon agricultural market materialized by the COMs, and an external section based onthe working of the Community preference rules and of a system of import levies and export1. P. BAUDIN, L’Europe face à ses marchés agricoles; de la naissance de la politique agricole communeà sa réforme, Economica, Paris, 1993.2. Cl. BLUMANN, Politique agricole commune; Droit communautaire agricole et agro-alimentaire,LITEC, Paris, 1996. V. ADAM, La réforme de la politique agricole commune de l’Union européenneou l’évolutionnisme permanent du droit communautaire, L’Harmattan, Paris, 2001, 2 vol.