Brussels, 09/05/2012 (Agence Europe) - Transparency in EU funding in agriculture leaves much to be desired: according to a press release published on Wednesday 9 May by the NGO Farmsubsidy.org, new privacy rules allow 92% of recipients of common agricultural policy (CAP) subsidies to remain anonymous.
Farmsubsidy.org estimates that the names of fewer than one in ten beneficiaries of EU farm subsidies has been published this year. The total value of payments published is €22 billion, or 45% of the annual CAP budget of €54 billion.
The group says that the “backsliding” on transparency has come in the wake of a ruling by the Court of Justice of the EU of November 2011, annulling some provisions of the regulation on transparency in agricultural funding. The Court ruled that the requirement that the names of natural persons (private individuals) receiving aid from the EAGF or the EAFRD be published, along with the amounts they received, violated their right to privacy. “It seems some member states are using a very broad definition of 'natural person' to keep as much data as possible from entering the public domain”, the NGO says. The Commission has launched a public consultation to gather views before making proposals on the review of the regulation on publication of the names of recipients of CAP funding. (LC/transl.rt)