CAP - Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union, at one time accounting for over 70% of the EU budget – now down to about 40%, and due to be overtaken by Structural Fund Policy in the next five years.
Pillar 1 – This is the part of the CAP which supports the income of EU farmers. Since the reform of 2003 (the so called Mid Term Review) this is mainly through direct payments to farmers which are not dependent upon how much they produce. It accounts for 80% of total CAP expenditure (2007-13).
Pillar 2 – This is the much smaller and younger part of the CAP which deals with "rural development". It has gradually
broadened out over the past thirty years. In the 1970s it focussed on assisting farmers to invest and "restructure" to become more competitive, and on compensating farmers in marginal areas for the physical disadvantages they face. During the 1980s and 1990s a wide range of other "themes" were added, including support for processing and marketing, payments to farmers to protect or improve the environment, and payments to help them diversify. Most recently various measures have been introduced which aim to tackle rural development issues outside agriculture – this is known as "territorial rural policy".
Measures – these are programmes which are specified in detail in the EU rural development regulation (the one covering 2007-13 is number 1698/2005). This regulation contains a "menu" of 39 such measures, from which member states are required to select those that they wish to implement.
The Four "Axes" of the 2007-13 Pillar 2 Programme – These are simply groups of "measures" which are similar in theme. Broadly speaking, the first two axes address the needs of farmers only. Axis 3 has both "sectoral" and "territorial" measures, while Axis 4 relates to implementation – implying a more "bottom up" rather than top-down style. Member states are obliged to spend Pillar 2 funds on all four "axes", and minimum proportions for each are specified by the regulation.