The Dispute In The Implementation Of The EU Agricultural Subsidy Policy Between Britain And France

The birth of the European Union, that completely changed the Europeancountries centuries struggle history, is a major event in the history of internationalrelations in the second half of the20th century. The nation-state played an importantrole since the European integration lunched. With the integration gradual deepening,different countries have diverse interests and aspirations, European integration is notpossible to satisfy goals of all countries, and conflict to maximize their own interestsis inevitable.Britain and France are two big countries of Europe, which are also major EUmember states. In the European integration process, Britain and France have beendisputed ever in order to satisfy national interests and achieve the overall strategicgoal, which is particularly reflected in the EU agricultural subsidies. As the initiator ofthe European agricultural country and the Common Agricultural Policy, Francebenefited greatly in agricultural subsidies policy. Britain as a traditional industrialcountry bore the high budget contributions, but cannot enjoy generous agriculturalsubsidies. The purpose of this paper is looking for the cause of the dispute betweenBritain and France by analyzing the game of EU agricultural subsidies, thus to betterunderstand the two-way interaction between the EU member states and the interactionbetween Member States and the European Union.This paper interpreted the EU agricultural subsidies policy in detail. EUagricultural subsidy policy, as the most important means of price support under theEU’s Common Agricultural Policy System, played the role of price subsidies in theprocess of implementing the Common Agricultural Policy and promoted thedevelopment of agriculture of the EU through price supports and direct subsidies. Themain source of EU agricultural subsidy come from the EU budget, the huge subsidypayments brought a heavy burden to the EU budget which is tight already.There is long-standing dispute on the EU agricultural subsidy policy betweenand France. Three main issues are focused: whether to cancel the refunds right of theBritain; whether to reduce agricultural subsidies; whether to reform of agriculturalsubsidy policy. Around these three issues, Britain and France accuse each other onseveral European Council summits, but dispute has no result.Paper discussed reasons of dispute on EU agricultural subsidy policy between British and French in three aspects. First, the different economic structures of Britainand France, which led to great disparities the two country received revenue from theEU agricultural subsidies policy. Agriculture is leading industry in France, enormousFrench population engaged in agricultural, developed agricultural organizations, ruralareas still lag behind. Agricultural Subsidy policy covers the vast majority ofagricultural development, provides a strong financial support and a good environmentfor agricultural development of France. In contrast, the Britain, traditional industrialcountry, earliest completed the first and the second industrial revolution, Britishagriculture is not competitive industries, Britain benefited little from AgriculturalSubsidy policy. Second, in the interest demands, Britain and France are in their owninterests as the starting point, when national interest conflict with EU interests, Britainand France immediately show the properties of nation-states, to safeguard the nationalinterests instead of the EU interests and development. Third, the lack of coordinationamong the EU member states mechanism, the EU cannot afford to be coordinatedwhen members clashed with members, mostly rely on their own negotiations betweenMember States or third country coordinate. This directly exposure the EUdecision-making institution lack of authority on the balance; the organization runningcomplex and Multivariate, affecting the practicality played; system construction andrespect on supranational and national incomplete.Britain and France as the main countries of the EU played an important role inEU’s development. Dispute failed between Britain and France for many years in theEU agricultural subsidy policy, have had a profound impact on the two countries andthe EU. On the positive side, two countries have defended their benefits in the dispute,and the dispute process promoting EU agricultural subsidy policy reform to a morerational direction, making the development of European integration more pragmatic.On the negative side, dispute, between Britain and France, affecting the feelings ofpeople and two governments, increased people’s distrust of the government. Situationof marathon negotiations affected other work of the EU to carry out and increased theburden on the EU budget.