According to a new Regulation adopted by the Commission on 19 March, the data will have to be published on special national websites by 30 April 2009, so that members of the general public can monitor how money under the EU’s €55 billion Common Agricultural Policy budget is being spent.
The Commission will also set up its own website linking to each national one. Information regarding amounts will be broken down according to whether they were in the form of direct payments or other support measures, notably under the rural development fund.
"This is taxpayers' money, so it is very important that people know where it is being spent," said EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Mariann Fischer Boel.
The move, originally announced in October 2006, is a key pillar of the Commission's wider initiative on transparency (see LinksDossier), which notably requires that all funds disbursed under its direct control be made public immediately.
But the idea is also to ensure a better control over the efficiency of handouts to European farmers, amid concerns that some large exploitations are reaping in millions of euro, while many smaller, low-income farms receive practically nothing.
"Transparency should also improve the management of these funds, by reinforcing public control of how the money is used. Only in this way can we guarantee an informed debate about the future of the Common Agricultural Policy,” insisted Fischer Boel.
According to available data, the NGO Farmsubsidy.org calculates that, 18% of farms in the receive 85% of all EU agricultural subsidies. "The more we find out about who gets what, the more we see just how disconnected the common agricultural policy is from the perceptions of the ordinary Europeans who foot the bill," the NGO’s co-founder Jack Thurston commented.
The Commission hoped to address these imbalances when subjecting the CAP to a thorough “health check” in May this year, with preliminary plans, presented by Commissioner Fischer Boel at the end of last year, suggesting a reduction in the maximum amount of subsidies that farms can receive in a given year. But agricultural ministers from the 27 member states rejected the move earlier this week (EurActiv 19/03/08).
Many countries also remain attached to the traditional confidentiality surrounding subsidy payments, with so far, just fourteen govenrments having chosen to publish partial or full information on the main beneficiaries of their farm subsidies ahead of schedule.
