46 ANALYSIS AND AND PROSPECTIVE STUDIES CULTIVAR No. 34 The future of the Common Agricultural Policy and environmental conditionality (Fischler, 2003), the introduction of Greening (2013), or, more recently, the performance logic based on targets and result indicators unified in national strategic plans (2021–2027). No other European public policy has managed to combine continuity with adaptation, stability and innovation in this way. It is also this evolution that explains why the CAP has been, for decades, the main instrument supporting the Union's most powerful asset: the internal market. The opening of internal borders and the unification of markets would never have been politically acceptable or economically viable without a mechanism capable of reducing productivity asymmetries, stabilising agricultural incomes, modernising farms and preventing the collapse of entire sectors that would otherwise have been unable to compete on equal terms. The CAP thus acted as a structural buffer against territorial and production inequalities, allowing economic liberalisation to proceed without causing social or territorial rifts. Its success is measured not only by the political stability it has ensured, but also by its economic results. The European Union has become simultaneously the always maintained the founding principle of a stable and predictable European legal framework that reduces uncertainty and ensures equal treatment for farmers in the different Member States. The Europe of Communities manifested itself in the territorial dimension of the CAP, which has always been present and has been particularly reinforced since the 1992 Reform and the Agenda 2000. The creation of the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF) and, later, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) with the Rural Development Programmes introduced a philosophy of multilevel governance. The CAP is no longer just a policy aimed at ensuring its primary objective of productivity, market stability and affordable prices, as defined in Article 39 of the TFEU, but has also become an instrument for rural revitalisation, sustainable land management and environmental preservation, greatly expanding its original function of supporting income and food security. The Europe of Sovereignties revealed itself in the existence of national envelopes, differentiated cofinancing, flexibilities in the implementation and political decisions taken by the EU Council of Ministers for Agriculture and Fisheries. It was this flexibility that enabled the CAP to be adapted to the productive structures of each country and to preserve The strength of the CAP has always lay in its plasticity and ability to adapt to the European priorities of the moment. world largest exporter and the largest importer of agri-food products, maintaining a consistently positive trade balance over the last decade. This track record is more than a historical perspective, it is a the democratic legitimacy in decision-making processes. The strength of the CAP has always lay in its plasticity and ability to adapt to the European priorities of the moment. This was the case in the transition from price support to direct payments (MacSharry Reform, 1992), in the inclusion of an autonomous pillar for rural development (Agenda 2000), in the deepening of market orientation (decoupling of production support) strategic warning for the present. At a time when the European Union is reinforcing the need to guarantee its strategic autonomy in areas such as energy, defence, technology and semiconductors, the CAP should be seen alongside these areas for the construction of contemporary European strategies, as a source of lessons and participation, and not as a legacy of the past.
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