Mansholt plan

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The Mansholt Plan was a concept for the common agricultural policy of the European Economic Community , which the then Commissioner for Agriculture and Vice-President of the Commission Sicco Mansholt presented in 1968. The plan envisaged extensive rationalization measures in European agriculture, the formation of larger economic units and the gradual cessation of all subsidies . Fierce opposition from European governments and farmers' associations meant that the Mansholt Plan was not implemented in its original form.

background

Between 1962 and 1968, the European Economic Community paid out agricultural subsidies amounting to more than 20.7 million D-Marks , mainly in the form of export subsidies and guaranteed minimum prices . The overproduction of food led to the phenomenon of " butter mountains " for the first time . Mansholt himself emphasized the urgency of realigning agricultural policy: "If we do nothing now, butter will pour onto the streets by 1970 at the latest."

The Mansholt Plan was the result of a working group of Commission officials who met regularly in Luxembourg ; the concept was submitted to the EEC states in December 1968 under file number COM (68) / 1000. The presented paper consisted of six sections, of which section A, entitled Memorandum on the Reform of Agriculture in the European Economic Community, is to be regarded as the actual core of the Mansholt Plan. The demands contained therein were quite general. The plan was initially only intended as a basis for discussion, which was intended to provoke a general commitment to reforms; Details should still be renegotiated.

content

In the Mansholt paper, halving the number of employees in European agriculture by 1980 was defined as a goal. Four million peasants, farm workers and family members should receive a state pension if they went out of business; one million should be trained for work in other economic sectors through retraining measures . In 1980, only 6 percent of all employees in the EEC were supposed to be active in the agricultural sector (for 1970 a share of 13 percent was expected). This measure was intended on the one hand to reduce the aging of the peasantry and on the other hand to make more than 20 million hectares of land available. 5 million hectares should be set aside , another 4 million afforested , the remaining areas should be cultivated by larger, more efficient farms. Mansholt viewed the trend towards part-time farming , which was already observed at the time , merely as a phenomenon of transition, which would disappear again over time through the process of creating efficient large farms.

The course of forced modernization pursued by the Mansholt Plan can also be seen in the question of the size of the farm: at that time the average agricultural area of ​​a farmer in the EEC was 11 hectares; this should be increased to 80 to 100 hectares. This should be achieved through targeted structural policy measures: in future, according to the plan, subsidies will only be given to competitive companies. For example, farmers who run a dairy farm with fewer than 60 cows should no longer receive subsidies in future. The agricultural price policy of the EEC was to be based exclusively on costs and needs and thus to follow the logic of the market. The model of the “family farm” should be replaced by the more technocratic terms of “production unit” and “modern agricultural enterprise”; the socio-political component of price policy would be eliminated. The rationalization in production would make fixed prices superfluous in the medium term and tend to lower prices for consumers.

reception

Mansholt's proposals were severely rejected in Germany, which had the highest prices for food and other agricultural products in the EEC comparison; The timing of the publication in the election campaign for the 1969 Bundestag election was also unfavorable. The chairman of the CSU regional group in the Bundestag, Richard Stücklen , said: "Not five million farmers are too many, but a vice-president in Brussels." Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger simply stated that the Mansholt Plan was being taken seriously as a basis for discussion and that it was being taken from all sides - also the peasantry - checked. However, one must also keep an eye on possible alternatives.

The violent protests of the peasantry in all member states of the EEC - in Brussels armed police forces were repeatedly called up to protect Sicco Mansholt from attacks by violent demonstrators - ultimately led to the Mansholt plan being practically "buried"; the structural policy guidelines agreed in May 1971 contained little of the commissioner's original intention. However, the Mansholt Plan can be understood as a forerunner of later reform measures (e.g. Agenda 2000 ), which also aimed to strengthen the market economy element in European agricultural policy.

literature

  • Hermann Bohle / Hans Bartsch: The end of illusions. The Mansholt Plan: The Hour of Truth for MPs, Ministers, Taxpayers and Farmers. (= European writings of the educational institute Europäische Politik; Vol. 23) Europa-Union-Verlag, Cologne 1969 ISBN 3-7713-0040-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Der Spiegel 51/1968: Butter on the street
  2. ↑ Rosemary Fennell: The Common Agricultural Policy. Continuity and Change. Clarendon Press, Oxford 2002 ISBN 0-19-828857-3 pp. 208ff.
  3. ↑ Günther Burkert-Dottolo: The country marked. The history of the Styrian farmers and their political representation. Leopold Stocker Verlag, Graz-Stuttgart 1999 ISBN 3-7020-0851-9 p. 199f.
  4. ^ Kiran Klaus Patel : Europeanization against will. The Federal Republic of Germany in the agricultural integration of the EEC 1955–1973 . Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2009 ISBN 978-3-486-59146-0 p. 429f.
  5. ↑ Der Spiegel 51/1968: Butter on the street
  6. ^ Hans Peter Schwarz (ed.): Files on the foreign policy of the Federal Republic of Germany. Vol. 1. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich, 1994 ISBN 3-486-55964-8 p. 422
  7. ^ Markus F. Hofreiter: Origins and development of the Common Agricultural Policy . in: Michael Gehler (ed.): From common Market to European Union Building. 50 Years of the Rome Treaties 1957-2007 . Böhlau Verlag, Vienna-Cologne-Weimar 2009 ISBN 978-3-205-77744-1 pp. 333-349, here p. 347