EU – Agriculture ministers have finally agreed on terms for reform of the common agricultural policy, following three weeks of intense negotiations.

Critics of the EU’s food production subsidies will be disappointed: the deal is a watered down version of the original proposals, which planned to totally scrap the EU’s production subsidies. Individual countries will now be able to begin the process of removing production subsidies in the milk sector.

The reforms, which represent one of the most comprehensive shake-ups of the system ever, set the shape of EU dairy and agricultural production for the next ten years, and will play a key part in restarting the Doha round of world trade talks in Mexico in September.