50 years of the EU's Common Agriculture Policy

For 50 years now, the European Union is making sure that we have food security and high quality products within the Union, that we are competitive on the global market and that social and environmental standards are respected.

Nevertheless, this policy has always been heavily debated and as the CAP is currently undergoing a reform you can be sure that we will talk about this policy a lot throughout 2012. This is what I said in my speech - in French - at the interinstitutional event marking the anniversary of the CAP. I attended the event together with Dacian Ciolos, the current Commissioner, and we also had the pleasure to welcome two previous Commissioners responsible for agriculture. Interesting times in the past, and interesting time to come, politically speaking.