The CAP in the Nineties

The MacSharry reform of 1992 made it possible to break the deadlock in negotiations on international trade. The Marrakesh Agreement in 1994 concluded the negotiations and established the World Trade Organisation based in Geneva. However, some years later, while the CAP reform has not yet fully entered into force, there is a feeling that further steps in the process of renewing the CAP are still pending. Not least because its share of the Community budget has not only not been reduced, but actually increased. Other priorities are now emerging. One of these is the introduction of a rural development policy that complements the sectoral approach of traditional agricultural policy with a territorial approach. With these objectives in mind, the LEADER Community Initiative was launched in 1991, a successful experience with bottom-up programming. The approaching end of the millennium provides an opportunity to analyse for the first time the weight of the CAP in the Union's budget since its introduction at the end of the twentieth century.