France And European Common Agricultural Policy

Since the start of European integration, the nation-state has played an important role in the integration process. Early theoretical debates of European integration focused on the issues such as final results of European integration and the roles of nation-states and supranational institutions in the integration process etc. With the deep development of European integration, many fields of member states have been influenced by the integration process, especially by European Union. In the 1990s researchers began to pay more attention to the impact of European Union on the member states. They believe that domestic political systems and policies have been influenced by European Union, and this phenomenon is called "Europeanization". The most notable example of Europeanization is in the agricultural policy field. All agricultural policies of member states comply with the "Common Agricultural Policy" which was formulated in the 1960s.The Europeanization of agricultural policies of member states means that member states need to change some "misfit" between Europe and domestic policies in order to comply with the "Common Agricultural Policy". Most researchers argue that the relationship between the EU and its member states is not a one-way street .Member states are not merely passive receivers of European demands for domestic change. They may proactively shape European policies .The purpose of this paper is to explore the interactive relationship between member states and the EU by analyzing how France proactively shapes the Common Agricultural Policy, implements the common policy and responds to the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy.At the beginning of this paper there are some definitions of "Europeanization". Then there is an analysis of the relationship between Europeanization and member states and a description of Europeanization of agricultural policies of member states. The paper focuses on the relationship between France and the Common Agricultural Policy. All agricultural policies of member states comply with the "Common Agricultural Policy" which was formulated in the 1960s.All member states comply with common principles. There are common prices,market mechanism and financial supports, and the supranational institutions play important roles in the decision-making process and in the implementation process of the Common Agricultural Policy. But member states are not merely passive receivers of European demands for domestic change. From the beginning of the formulating of the Common Agricultural Policy, member states actively responded to the Europeanization of their agricultural policies, especially France. France always tried to upload the policy preference to the European level in order to reduce the cost of misfit. It is also obvious that in the implementation and reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. France is never a passive receiver.Finally, the paper makes a summary of the relationship between France and the Common Agricultural Policy. It has a conclusion that with the decline of influence in EU, France has to face the fundamental reform of the Common Agricultural Policy.The paper discusses the relationship between member states and the EU is an interactive process referring to the analysis method of "Europeanization", and takes the Europeanization of agricultural policy as an example. The paper analyzes the relationship between France and the Common Agricultural Policy in an "Europeanization" perspective.