I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate on this important issue. Emerging from the talks in Luxembourg, Dr. Franz Fischler hailed the agreement as marking the beginning of a new era which would change the way the European Union relates to farming. He is correct in that the reform proposals are a radical departure and represent a seismic shift away from the old Common Agricultural Policy. A core principle of the talks was to break the link between subsidies and production, which has been fundamental in the Common Agricultural Policy to date and correctly regarded as incentivising over-production and rewarding inefficiency.