Renationalization of the Common Agricultural Policy: Mission Impossible?

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the EU does not currently meet the different needs of diverse agricultural conditions of different member countries in a just and equal way. To meet this challenge has become inevitably more difficult as new and diverse Central and Eastern European countries have entered the Community. Several commentators and economists have thus suggested that a renationalization of the CAP would be an applicable way to proceed in an attempt to pursue a policy sensitive enough to national and regional or local needs and priorities. Renationalization mainly deals with two issues: (i) should member states have more power and freedom on decisions of agricultural policy, and (ii) should there be a shift from common financing back to national funds? This paper discusses these issues from a political-economy perspective.