Protecting the European Environment from the Community: The Case of Agriculture

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) was one of the first common policies to be created by the then European Economic Community. The policy was created at a time when little or no thought had been given to the environmental effects of Community policies. Today, Article 6 of the EC Treaty places an obligation upon the Community to directly integrate environmental protection considerations into other policy areas. This article will examine the manner in which this commitment has been observed by the Community in respect of the CAP. In this context an examination will be conducted of the manner in which the CAP was created and of the environmental issues which have been attributed to agriculture. The article will then, in the light of subsequent reforms, examine the present CAP. In particular, the article focuses upon environmental measures which have been adopted by the Community and analyses these measures against the objective of integrating environmental protection considerations within the CAP.