The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union has been one of the most important and enduring policies shaping both the internal cohesion of the Union and its global role in trade, development, and agricultural sustainability. Conceived in the aftermath of the Second World War, the CAP emerged from the urgent need to secure food supplies, stabilize agricultural markets, and ensure a decent standard of living for farmers who had suffered economic and social dislocation during the war. Its historical development, institutional structure, policy reforms, and significance in both European integration and world affairs make it a cornerstone of the EU’s political and economic identity. The origins of the CAP can be traced back to the Treaty of Rome of 1957, which established the European Economic Community (EEC). At the time, agriculture was central to European economies, employing a large proportion of the population and shaping national identities. Food shortages during and after the war had highlighted the vulnerability of Europe’s agricultural base. The Treaty of Rome explicitly provided for a common agricultural policy, and by 1962 the CAP was formally launched. Its objectives, laid down in Article 39 of the Treaty, included increasing agricultural productivity, ensuring a fair standard of living for the agricultural community, stabilizing markets, securing food supplies, and ensuring reasonable prices for consumers. These aims reflected both economic and political imperatives, tying together the goals of economic recovery with the need to strengthen European integration. The early decades of the CAP were characterized by strong interventionism. The policy relied on mechanisms such as guaranteed minimum prices, intervention buying by public authorities, and tariffs to protect European farmers from external competition. These measures succeeded in their immediate goal of securing food security, and by the late 1960s and 1970s Europe had transformed from a continent reliant on food imports to a major agricultural producer with surpluses. However, this very success gave rise to significant challenges. The accumulation of “butter mountains” and “wine lakes” became symbols of overproduction, inefficiency, and the distortions created by price supports. The financial burden of the CAP also grew rapidly, consuming the largest share of the EEC budget, and its protectionist stance attracted criticism from trading partners, particularly the United States, within the framework of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). These pressures set the stage for successive waves of reform aimed at reducing the distortions of the CAP while maintaining its fundamental goals. The 1980s saw attempts to limit surpluses through measures such as milk quotas, but the most significant reforms began in 1992 under Commissioner Ray MacSharry. The MacSharry reforms marked a decisive shift away from price supports toward direct payments to farmers, partially decoupling subsidies from production. This not only sought to address overproduction but also aligned the CAP more closely with international trade liberalization efforts, particularly in the context of the Uruguay Round negotiations of the