Despite substantial changes since its inception the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) remains the most extensive common policy, accounting for almost half of the EU’s budget and almost half of the legislation. The CAP was a decisive component of European integration in the past; but what role should it play in the future? This European Policy Analysis aims at providing a vision for the CAP after 2013.

The financial and economic crisis, the constitutional and institutional uncertainties and the climate change issue will dominate the Swedish EU Presidency. This European Policy Analysis outlines, in turn, the European and global context; the tasks and roles of the presidency; and the priorities of the Swedish government for its stint at the helm of the European Union.

This European Policy Analysis tests the common proposition that flexible integration imposes significant costs on those member states that opt out of further integration within specific policy fields. The analysis presents data on network capital in the working groups and committees of the Council of the EU which indicate that the Euro-outsiders are in fact doing well in the informal networking in the Council.

The new U.S.

The latest poll of the Swedish public opinion regarding the EU shows that the levels of support are at an all-time high since the membership in 1995. There is now almost a majority supporting the EU.

The automotive industry has been hit hard by the global economic crisis and governmental financial support and rescue packages have been launched in different countries. This European Policy Analysis by Rikard Forslid discusses the economic arguments for governmental support of the car industry.

The EU is about to adopt a comprehensive strategy for the Baltic Sea region. While intuitively attractive, the idea of the strategy nonetheless gives rise to a set of critical questions.

The current European Policy Analysis focuses on legal and institutional issues relating to the financial crisis from an EU perspective. The text contains a brief assessment of some elements of the plan agreed at the London Summit of the so called G-20 and a discussion on the possible impact of the financial crisis on the future development of the EU.

The report, which has been written by researchers at the Institute for European Environmental Policy, assesses to what extent the EU budget has contributed to achieving the EU’s climate change objectives and sets out arguments on how and why the EU budget might support the fight against climate change in the future.   The analysis shows that there has been little focus on these objectives so far and that this is also true for the current 2007-2013 Financial Perspective.

Following the food scandals of the 1990s and the White Paper on Food Safety in 2000, the Community made an impressive overhaul of its regulation of food safety. Whilst a number of legal measures focusing upon the elimination of barriers to trade remain in force until this day, the Community put into place a completely new scheme, covering all stages in the food chain and all types of foodstuffs.