CAP: Common market organisation post 2013

What are the changes to the common market organisation?

In future the EU will be better equipped to respond to market imbalances and crisis situations. In cases of extreme market disturbance or extreme price volatility, the revised tool box should cushion the impact on farmers. In crisis situations, such as an E.coli outbreak, the Commission can apply new emergency measures.

The school fruit scheme and the school milk scheme will continue, and the budget for the school fruit scheme will increase.

Sugar quotas will be abolished by 2017. This will improve the competitiveness of European sugar producers on the world market and at the same time provide increased opportunities for sugar producers in developing countries to access the EU market.

The reform also strengthens the bargaining position of farmers when negotiating with the food processing industry and supermarket chains, particularly by enabling them to join forces more effectively in producer organisations and interbranch organisations. This should allow them to maintain sustainable profit margins in the long term.