Rząd RFN wobec idei integracji zachodnioeuropejskiego rolnictwa i budowy Wspólnej Polityki Rolnej w latach 1949–1969
The German government and the idea of Western European integration of agriculture and the construction of the Common Agricultural Policy

Summary/Abstract: One of the most complex processes in the history of the EEC was to create an institutional and financial basis for Common Agricultural Policy. Advocated by France, the integration of European agriculture on the one hand was perceived in the FRG as a threat to the existence of hundreds of thousands of German farms, and on the other hand as a valuable bargaining chip for achieving fundamental objectives of its foreign policy in the 1950s and 60s, that is, to overcome international isolation and integrate politically and economically with the West. The article presents motives and decisions made by the FRG authorities with regard to the ideas of Western European integration of agriculture and the subsequent stages of the construction of the CAP in the years 1949-1969. Politicians of the CDU and the CSU responsible for managing agricultural affairs were slowing down the integration process of the agricultural market of the EEC acting under the pressure of a protectionist approach of the German Farmers’ Association. Eventually however they were forced to agree to the creation of the CAP and its costly organizational and financing processes. West German agricultural policy was an integral part of general foreign policy and the consent to the creation of the CAP was the price that the FRG agreed to pay in exchange for the opportunity to implement their fundamental political and economic objectives, even though it limited possibilities of internal agricultural policy, was expensive for the budget and weakened the political influence of the CDU / CSU in the rural environment.

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