Abstract | The so-called Mansholt Plan of 1968 was the first of many attempts to reform the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). It was a radical proposal to transform European agriculture and to modernise agricultural structures. As such, the reception of the Mansholt Plan, the reactions of member states and farmers’ lobbies and the aftermath of the Memorandum have been discussed in the literature. This article sets out to place the Mansholt Plan in the wider context of the rise of structural policy in the EEC in the 1960s. It analyses the preparation of the Memorandum, explores the policy and decision-making process leading to it, and discusses the different actors that were involved in the process. The article thus sheds new light on a crucial episode in the history of the CAP. |
---|