As expected, the accession to power of the Tory Conservative Party in the United Kingdom did not alter London’s position regarding the CAP. Only a few weeks after the British elections, the June 1 meeting of the European Union Agriculture Ministers in Merida, Spain, was the opportunity for the new liberal-conservative coalition government to tell its European partners that it “remains strongly committed to a radical CAP reform”.

According to Caroline Spelman, the new British Agriculture Minister, the crisis in Europe should help to negotiate “a new hierarchical order of European spending––meaning to reduce European spending allocated to agriculture in the CAP framework. Because as far as London in concerned, the topic always remains the same: Less CAP subsidies, less regulation. For the Minister, the current economic downturn is “a real opportunity” to “lighten the burden of regulation.”

London seems to be more isolated than anything else on this issue, since it can only count on the support of Nordic countries such as Sweden or Denmark. That being the case, it is unfortunate that the new liberal-conservative coalition government reduces agricultural issues to budgetary concerns, despite the fact that agriculture represents a strategic economic sector. By insisting on cost reduction, there is a greater risk to have to bear the much steeper cost of a major crisis. If the Finance Ministers had learned in 2005 the real cost of the financial crisis, we can safely bet they would have opted to regulate the industry a long time ago.

Let’s learn from our mistakes and not wait for a second crisis––in agriculture and food this time––so that all countries agree to bear the relatively modest cost of regulation––less than €0.30 per day and per person in the European Union––in view of the financial consequences of an economic turmoil.