EU transparency to cover CAP pay-outs?[fr][de] 

Commission Vice-President Siim Kallas kicked-off a debate on Wednesday (3 May) over whether member states should disclose the beneficiaries of the €86.6 billion of EU money distributed every year to farmers, fishermen or NGOs carrying out humanitarian projects abroad.

Presenting his 'Green Paper'  on a European Transparency Initiative, the Anti-Fraud and Administrative Affairs Commissioner from Estonia said he was "surprised" at how little information is currently made available to the public on these issues, due to "explicit confidentiality" rules.

Information on beneficiaries of EU money spent jointly with member states is currently in the hands of national governments, says the Commission, which points out that "any disclosures on the subject are left to their discretion".

At stake is the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which still absorbs some 40% of the Community's annual €100 billion euro budget.

France (22% of total CAP payments in 2004), Spain (15%) and Germany (14%), who currently receive the largest chunk of agriculture payments, have all decided not to publish information on beneficiaries. Of the big agricultural states, only Italy (12%) has decided to publish this information, along with the UK (9%).

In an analysis  published last year by the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), Prof. Richard Baldwin (Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva) links the rejection of the EU constitution in France with inequality on CAP payments. 

According to Baldwin, one-quarter of all CAP payments in France goes to a minority (5%) of farmers, who are usually the richest and largest ones. By contrast, he says, two-fifths of French farmers - the small ones - receive together only 5% of CAP subsidies.

"For decades, the French political elite have manipulated images of humble farmers to provide huge subsidies to the agricultural elite - industrial-scale farmers and wealthy landowners," Baldwin says. "It is exactly this sort of 'we-know-what-is-good-for-you' attitude that the French rejected," he adds.

According to the French permanent representation to the EU in Brussels, the list of CAP beneficiaries is not published in France due to data protection laws. Spokesperson Nicolas de la Granville said France's official reaction to the Green Paper would follow in the coming weeks.