In the review of its Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) foreseen in 2008, the Commission should check whether funds to support European farmers are being handed out efficiently and, if they are not, it may be necessary to "impose top and bottom limits to what farmers can receive under the Single Payment Scheme", said Commissioner for Agriculture, Mariann Fischer Boel in a speech on 17 July 2006.
According to the NGO Farmsubsidy.org, 7% of farmers in the EU-15 receive 56% of all subsidies, with some companies receiving tens of millions of euros each year.
Commissioner Fischer Boel said it was time to look at whether such large payments "fit into the evolving principles of the CAP. Are they an effective and efficient means of rewarding farmers for providing public goods?".
She also questioned the efficiency of thousands of very small payments to farmers, for which administration costs are higher than the amounts actually paid out, suggesting that a minimum cap may be necessary too.
Up till now, member states have had a right to confidentiality regarding sums received under the CAP. But as part of its European Transparency Initiative, the Commission wants to make it compulsory for Member States to publish a list of all beneficiaries of such funds. Commissioner Fischer Boel defended this point of view, saying "European citizens have a right to know what we are spending their money on".
12 countries, including France, Spain and the UK, which, between them accounted for 45% of the 43,5 billion euro worth of EU agricultural aid in 2004, have agreed to disclose at least partial information on the main beneficiaries of their farm subsidies. Germany (14%), Italy (11%) and Greece (6%) are still holding back.
