Abstract/Summary

In the early 1970s the CAP was subject to review on four occasions, but survived each more-or-less unscathed. Soon after the 1973 enlargement of the EEC, the Commission of the European Communities launched a debate to ‘improve’ the CAP, to the surprise of Edward Heath’s administration. In a period of inflation, currency fluctuations, and the emergence of a world commodity price boom, that initiative had produced meagre results by the time Harold Wilson’s Labour government displaced Heath. Labour’s attempts to renegotiate the terms of membership had little impact on the CAP, despite the government assertions to the contrary. Moreover, any hope that the USA could secure changes through the GATT negotiations triggered by enlargement had proven illusory. Similarly the German Government’s insistence on budget cuts and a CAP ‘stocktaking’ had lost its way by the time Heads of State assembled in Rome in December 1975.