Labour's Day Trips to Europe. Blair abandons farm reforms (8th January 1998)Tony Blair has shelved plans to make sweeping reform of Europe's discredited and wasteful Common Agricultural Policy a top priority of Britain's presidency of the European Union because of stiff opposition from German farmers. Launching Britain's six months at the helm of the EU, Mr Blair omitted any mention of the need to overhaul the farm scheme - a key commitment of Labour's election manifesto. The exclusion of CAP reform from a list of British priorities contrasted sharply with numerous statements last year from Mr Blair and Labour ministers. The EU farm policy, widely regarded as inefficient, absorbs nearly half of the EU's £60 billion-a-year budget. In the Queen's Speech debate in May, John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, reaffirmed that reform of the CAP was a "key priority". Mr Blair, in his Lord Mayor's Banquet Speech in November, said Labour would "change Europe where it needs changing" - and put reform of the CAP at the head of a list of changes.
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