The reform that dare not speak its name

Thursday, November 08, 2007
The reform that dare not speak its name
Keen though they are to call the EU constitution a "reform" treaty, the “colleagues” are distinctly reticent about applying the word “reform” to yet another round of er… reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy.

Indulging in their love of circumlocutions and constructive ambiguities, this time they are calling it a "health check". Agriculture commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boel tells us that the process underway is a more "nuanced" approach aimed at a way of achieving "a better way of handling available resources."

This "nuanced" approach is an extension of what is known in the business as "modulation", creaming off subsidies paid to farmers and diverting them to rural development.

The "modulation" level now being proposed is €100,000 which means, according to the IHT that amongst the losers will be the Queen (ours, that is) and the owners of East Germany's Communist-era collective farms

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