This article is about the agricultural policy think-tank. For the Eurosceptic think-tank see Bruges Group

Bruges Group

The Bruges Group is a think tank based in the United Kingdom.The group is often associated with the Conservative Party, though it is independent of it and remains an all-party organisation...

The Groupe de Bruges is a European think-tank specializing in agriculture

Agriculture

Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

 and rural development

Rural development

Rural development in general denotes economic development and community development actions and initiatives taken to improve the standard of living in non-urban neighbourhoods, remote villages and the countryside...

. In November 2009 one of its members, Romanian Dacian Cioloş

Dacian Cioloş

Dacian Cioloş is a Romanian engineer and politician. In the Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu cabinet, he was Agriculture Minister from October 2007 to December 2008...

, was nominated European Commission

European Commission

The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....

er for Agriculture by European Commission President José Manuel Barroso.

The Groupe summarizes its own mission as "to provide an independent, positive and constructive criticism of the CAP

CAP

Cap may refer to:* Cap, a form of headgear* Lid ** Bottle cap, a closure to seal bottles** Screw cap, a closure to seal bottles or jars* Cap , a statistic representing an athlete's appearance in a select team game...

".

History

The Groupe de Bruges was created in 1995 by Edgard Pisani

Edgard Pisani

Edgard Pisani was a French politician. He was born in Tunis and his parents were Maltese immigrants. He spent his childhood in Tunisia and later studied in Paris. Pisani holds a "licence de lettres" from La Sorbonne. His second marriage was with the daughter of André Le Troquer.He held positions...

 and Bertrand Hervieu as a Europe-wide successor to the French Groupe de Seillac (1992-5). The latter had been formed in the context of the debate on reform of the European Union

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

's Common Agricultural Policy

Common Agricultural Policy

The Common Agricultural Policy is a system of European Union agricultural subsidies and programmes. It represents 48% of the EU's budget, €49.8 billion in 2006 ....

 in the early 1990s. Through its life, the Groupe has enjoyed funding from the Swiss Charles-Leopold Mayer foundation.

In 1996 the Groupe published the book Agriculture at a Turning Point in France, Spain and the Netherlands. A second edition of the book was published in 2002 in those countries as well as Italy and Bulgaria. On at least two occasions, the Groupe has attempted to influence public opinion through open letter

Open letter

An open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally....

s to the European Parliament

European Parliament

The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...

. Members of the group took part in the agriculture-related work of the 2001-3 Convention on the Future of Europe.

By 2003, it had grown to include 25 members from 22 European countries, including several from Central and Eastern Europe

Central and Eastern Europe

Central and Eastern Europe is a term describing former communist states in Europe, after the collapse of the Iron Curtain in 1989/90. In scholarly literature the abbreviations CEE or CEEC are often used for this concept...

 which, at the time, were not yet members of the European Union.

Notable members

• Dacian Cioloş
  Dacian Cioloş
  Dacian Cioloş is a Romanian engineer and politician. In the Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu cabinet, he was Agriculture Minister from October 2007 to December 2008...
  
  : Romanian minister of Agriculture (2007-8) and European Commissioner-designate for Agriculture and Rural Development in the Barroso II college (2010-)
• Bertrand Hervieu: Former Secretary General of the International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM)
• Edgard Pisani: French minister of Agriculture 1961-6