Subsidies: it will be a bitter honeymoon

Cash transfers to farmers from the EU's common agricultural policy (CAP) will not postpone draconian changes to national agriculture or represent an investment in modernisation and productivity, according to studies compiled for the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies. The beneficiaries, on a modest scale, will be the 700,000 larger units, which are organised to service market demands on a commercial basis. But smallholders, up to 1.5 million altogether, who are either producing for their own needs or service-concentrated local markets, can expect no relief in meaningful terms, says Josef Pöschl, a director of the Vienna Institute.