In this interview, Helmut von Verschuer, civil servant in the German Ministry of Agriculture from 1952 to 1958, summarises the German Government’s objectives for the Paris conferences of 1952 on the establishment of a common agricultural policy between the Six, and explains the impact of these ‘green pool’ negotiations on the subsequent introduction of the common agricultural policy (CAP).

In this interview, Helmut von Verschuer recalls the negotiating directives and the proceedings of the negotiations in Val Duchesse on the common agricultural policy, in which he took part initially as representative of the government of the Federal Republic of Germany, and from March 1958 onwards as representative of the Commission of the European Economic Community.