Barral a los ojos de sus contemporáneos.

The European Union is made up of 28 Member States who negotiate and agree treaties which include the EU objectives, the rules for EU institutions, how decisions are made and the relationship between the EU and its Member States. Each Member State then ratifies those treaties with their own parliament or by referendum. The institutions that are involved in the decision-making include:

* the European Parliament, which represents the EU’s citizens and is directly elected by them;

* the European Council, which consists of the Heads of State or Government of the EU Member States;

* the Council, which represents the governments of the EU Member States; and * the European Commission, which represents the interests of the EU as a whole.

“The European Council defines the general political direction and priorities of the EU but it does not exercise legislative functions. Generally, it is the European Commission that proposes new laws and it is the European Parliament and Council that adopt them. The Member States and the Commission then implement them.” (European Commission, 2013, p. 5).

The legislation includes: * Regulations

“A regulation is a law that is applicable and binding in all Member States directly. It does not need to be passed into national law by the Member States although national laws may need to be changed to avoid conflicting with the regulation.”

* Directives

“A directive is a law that binds the Member States, or a group of Member States, to achieve a particular objective. Usually, directives must be transposed into national law to become effective. Significantly, a directive specifies the result to be achieved: it is up to the Member States individually to decide how this is done.”

“A decision can be addressed to Member States, groups of people, or even individuals. It is binding in its entirety. Decisions are used, for example, to rule on proposed mergers between companies.”

* Recommendations

“Recommendations and opinions have no binding force.” (European Commission, 2013, p. 5).

The underlying aim of EU environmental legislation is to “improve the quality of the

environment, protect human health, achieve prudent and rational use of natural resources, and promote international measures to address global or regional environmental problems.” (European Commission, 2004, p.3)

The European Union’s agricultural policy, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), was introduced in 1962. It implements a system of agricultural subsidies and programmes. Its main objective, as per the Treaty of the European Union, article 39, is “to ensure that agriculture can be maintained over the long term at the heart of a living countryside.” Its aims are:

* “an increase in agricultural productivity by means of technical progress and the rational development of agricultural production,

* a fair standard of living for the agricultural community, * the stabilisation of markets for farm products,

* food security (i.e. ensuring that there is always a supply of food), and

* food affordability (i.e. that the price of food is at a level that people can afford).” (European Commission, 2014c, p. 7)

The CAP has been reformed over the years and the 2013 reforms focus on the three long-term objectives of viable food production, sustainable management of natural resources and climate action, and balanced territorial development (European Commission, 2013a).

The CAP consists of two ‘pillars’. The first pillar is support to farmers’ incomes in the form of direct payments (e.g. the Base Payment Scheme originally the single payment scheme) and market measures. It is fully financed by the EU from the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund and accounts for more than 70% of the CAP budget. The second pillar is the support

provided for the development of rural areas and intends to “make the agriculture sector and forestry more competitive, strengthen links between the primary activity and the environment, improve the quality of life in rural areas, boost cooperation and innovation and promote diversification of the economy in rural communities” (European Parliament, 2014, p.1). It is jointly financed by the EU from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the Member States.

Table 2.4 Actions targeted under Pillars I and II

*Only main measures that target the specific issue under Pillar 2 are mentioned.

(European Commission, 2013b, p. 9)

Environmental protection was introduced into European Union legislation in 1972 with the European Environmental Action Plans. In the 1990s sustainable development became a main objective for the EU. The EU has a diverse range of methods to manage environmental issues but the majority are in the form of binding legislation including Regulations and Directives (Brouwer et al., 2000) as mentioned above. Although objectives are set down in the

Directives, Member States have some discretion on their implementation. In addition some Member States have introduced their own national legislation while others have introduced Codes of Practice.

One method of financially incentivising farmers to be more environmentally friendly was the Rural Environment Protection Scheme (REPS), introduced in 1994 which paid farmers an annual premium per hectare in return for the farmer protecting and maintaining flora and fauna habitats and improving their farm management in relation to environmental impacts.

Additional payments were made if other conditions were met such as allowing public access to their land and setting aside land for 20 years. Several European Union countries would buy farms and manage them for biodiversity purposes, maintaining and restoring species and habitats (Henle et al., 2008). This scheme ended in 2013 and has been replaced with the Agri- environment Options Scheme (AEOS). While the whole farm is not involved, the AEOS builds on the REPS to promote biodiversity and water quality and aims to combat climate change.

Through the EU schemes the EU farm sector is heavily subsidised. Annually, the EU spends over €55 billion (approximately 40% of their budget) on the common agricultural policy (CAP) with the primary goal of supporting farmers’ income and alleviating the environmental impact of agricultural production. (European Commission, 2014). On average each farm receives a subsidy of approximately €12,200 which provides nearly half of the EU farmers’ income (BBC, 2013).

With regard to dairy farming, the EU in 1984 introduced milk quotas when too much milk was being produced. During the 31 years it was in existance EU dairy farmers were guaranteed a price for their milk, regardless of demand, and higher than the world market. However they were fined if they exceeded their quota. This stopped on 31 March 2015.