Food Governance in the EU: The Demise of a Closed-Governance Bastion?

The EU is often considered the case par excellence where food governance structures privilege policy experts and farm lobby representatives. This paper investigates to what extent this closed-governance bastion has given way to more open decision-making structures over the last two decades due to the increasing multi-dimensionality of agriculture. A comparative analysis of the 1992, 2003 and 2013 CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) reforms will be presented to investigate whether environmental concerns have gained increasing influence through time. This analysis focuses on three aspects: 1) the degree to which environmental concerns have become more dominant in the discourse of Commission, European Parliament and interest groups; 2) the degree to which environmental interest groups have mobilized and gained access to EU decision-making; and 3) the extent to which the policy outcomes genuinely implied a ‘greener’ CAP. The research outcome will show to what extent existing governance theories still hold in EU agriculture.