Due to changes in the aspirations of citizens, social and economic conditions and the emergence of new technologies, it is necessary, from time to time, to adjust and update the common agricultural policy. This is the process of reform.There have been many reforms since 1992. The most recent was in 2003, during the tenure of Commissioner Franz Fischler, when specific direct payment schemes were incorporated into a single payment scheme, direct payments were decoupled from production and a number of new mechanisms were introduced (such as, cross-compliance, modulation, degressivity, financial discipline, farm advisory services and good agricultural and environmental conditions). In 2009, during the tenure of Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel, there was an important adjustment of the common agricultural policy (the Health Check). The functioning of the single payment scheme was simplified, the decoupling of direct payments was extended, the scope of cross-compliance was adjusted and set-aside was definitively abolished.A reform generally proceeds by the following steps: the publication of a discussion paper (known as a Communication) by the European Commission, a period of public consultation with stakeholders, the general public and all other interested parties, the submission of legislative proposals by the European Commission to the Council and the European Parliament together with an Impact Assessment, the discussion by the Council and Parliament of the legislative proposals, and, finally, the adoption and publication of the reform regulations.