Outlook 2008 CAP Reform - A New Policy Framework for a New Era 2-3 April 2008, Jury's Great Russell Street Hotel, London

Conference Papers are Now Available on CD-ROM!

Agra Europe’s 27th European Agricultural OUTLOOK conference - gave delegates the opportunity to hear from the people at the business end of European farm policy-making.  Our keynote speaker, Poul Skytte Christoffersen, Head of Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel's cabinet, offered a strategic overview of the CAP's future as seen from Brussels. Giving the UK's perspective, meanwhile, was  Britain's Minster of State for Sustainable Food and Farming, Lord Rooker.

Key speakers also addressed all the most topical farm policy issues, including the future for biofuels, the reform of the Single Farm Payment system, the impact of the Commission's proposed increase in cash transfers between the CAP's first and second 'pillars', and the economic and environmental consequences of eliminating set-aside. While other presentations looked in detail at the future for the dairy industry, the growing importance of biomass and bioenergy production, and the latest prospects for a WTO Doha Round agreement.