Simple principles

摘要

Franz Fischler believes his legacy will be a simpler CAR This is a matter of debate. Fischler is sensitive to his legacy because he insists that he will be leaving the Commission in November and will not be seeking a third term when a new Commission is chosen. He is already setting out his interpretation of his achievements. In a recent speech he gave ten reasons why the CAP is in better shape than ten years ago. This includes being simpler and less market-distorting. The reason why the CAP may in fact be more complicated is that Fischler had to make some major compromises to protect his central vision of decoupled payments. These compromises included significant elements of flexibility in the options open to member states for distributing payments. The range of permutations that can be derived from this flexibility means that every member state is virtually at liberty to create its own CAP. To a degree this means that a lasting legacy of Franz Fischler could be the re-nationalisation of the CAP. Fischler is sensitive to this and that is why he has become alarmed at some of the policy options for implementing direct payments being invented by member countries.