O tratado de Lisboa e a agricultura europeia

: consequências da aplicação do novo procedimento legislativo ordinário para a configuração e evolução futura da PAC

Abstract

The evolution of the Common Agricultural Policy, from its birth until today, has been characterized by a few decades of stability, followed by times of big and consecutive reforms, always tagged by the division of powers between the Council and Commission. The coming into force of the Lisbon Treaty and the consequent adoption of the Ordinary Legislative Procedure, as the key method of decision in agricultural policy matters, particularly in future reforms, will certainly change the previous division of power, introducing the Parliament as the new key player in the design and final configuration of CAP reforms. Through this work we try to understand and explain to what extent can, these changes, affect the future design of the CAP, while pointing the factors that may determine the Members of the European Parliament’s voting behavior. We try also to determine to what extent one can anticipate the existence of a higher or lower tendency towards CAP reform, by merely seeing de Parliament’s composition. We conclude that, in fact, the changes induced by the Lisbon Treaty have changed the balance of powers between the Union institutions. Three factors were identified as being the main factors that weigh in the voting behavior of the Members of the Parliament: the position of the National Parties in the lists of which they were elected, the position of the European Party or Parliamentary Group they include and their own ideological convictions. It is also concluded that any reformist propensity of the Parliament, may depend far more from the willingness and leadership of the members of the Agricultural Committee, particularly its President, than from any ideological frame in the Parliament, also due to the strong bipartidarization of the Parliament.

Date of Award	9 Dec 2013
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Arlindo Marques Cunha (Supervisor)