The Citizens’ Agora, which represents a link between the European Parliament and European civil society, launched a public consultation online on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform. The questionnaire entitled “From farmers to consumers, what common agricultural and food policy?” includes questions such as “What kind of agriculture do we prefer?” and is addressed to all EU citizens.

“From farmers to consumers, what common agricultural and food policy?” is the title of the questionnaire launched by the Citizens’ Agora, which represents a link between the European Parliament and European civil society. The Agora would like to gather views from all EU citizens with regard to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform. Recently, in July 2012, most of member states stressed that risk management has become essential for farmers.

The reform of the CAP is currently underway, and the European Parliament, through a lengthy democratic process, is preparing the final response. The questionnaire is part of this preparation and assures that replying to the questions does not presume a thorough understanding or prior knowledge of the EU Common Agricultural Policy. The questions are of a general nature. Some of the questions included in the consultation are What kind of agriculture do we prefer?, How to maintain reasonable price levels for European consumers?, How to reconcile farming with sustainable agricultural production?, or How to guarantee competitiveness of European agricultural products abroad?.

According to the Agora, the CAP has produced some spectacular results over the years, though reforms were needed to avoid overproduction. Nowadays, these surpluses are less frequent but further improvements should be implemented to maintain the viability of the European farming sector. Overall, the Agora has as main aim to provide room for open debate with a view to building consensus or revealing diverging opinions within civil society on the analysis or the action to be undertaken to address Europe's future challenges.