Intergovernmentalism and conditionality in the Common Agricultural policy: Cross-Compliance, Animal Welfare and the Dutch Case

This thesis examines the evolution of the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) with a particular focus on the emergence of differentiated integration in its conditionality regime, especially regarding animal welfare in the livestock sector. Although the CAP is formally designed as a common policy, its implementation across Member States reveals significant variation, raising questions about how and why differentiation occurs within a highly integrated policy framework. Drawing on Liberal Intergovernmentalism and multilevel bargaining theories, the analysis combines Moravcsik’s studies with Putnam’s two-level game and Patterson’s three-level game analysis to explore the interaction between domestic preferences, Eu-level negotiations, and international pressures. At the macro level, the thesis investigates how these dynamics have shaped the historical development and reform trajectory of the CAP, from price support mechanisms to a system centred on direct payments and cross-compliance. The research then focuses on a particular aspect of the CAP which is the conditionality principle, that links CAP payments to compliance with standards on environmental protection, public health, and animal welfare. The thesis analyses why conditionality has been implemented unevenly across Member States, with particular attention to derogations, exemptions, and flexibility in the livestock sector. Lastly, in the last chapter, there is the analysis of a case study on the Netherlands, selected for its economic weight in Eu agriculture, its strong livestock sector, and its active role in EU decision-making. The case study illustrates how domestic interest group pressures, government ideology, institutional capacity, and economic considerations influence the national implementation of cross-compliance rules, and how these factors can both align with and diverge from EU-level objectives on animal welfare.