Mariann Fischer Boel - The Sugar Reform

The Sugar Reform

When Fischer Boel took office in 2004, the EU had regulated its sugar sector in more or less the same way for some 40 years, supporting a domestic sugar price far above world market prices to keep production in place in every country of the Union.

Although the EU did not have a comparative advantage in sugar production, its policy was creating large surpluses which was exported with subsidies – a fact which was not welcomed by many of its trade partners.

With Fischer Boel's reform, agreed in 2005, the benchmark EU sugar price was cut by 36 per cent over several years. This helped to bring the EU sugar industry back into a sustainable and more natural balance with the rest of the world market – as a net importer rather than exporter. Bringing sugar beet farmers into the Single Payment Scheme gave them support which was in line with the need for competitiveness and which also depended on environmental standards (through cross-compliance). The reforms are also funding restructuring programmes in areas where sugar factories shut down – helping workers laid off to find new jobs, and putting disused factory sites back into good environmental condition.