Brussels, 26/02/2013 (Agence Europe) - The proposal of the European Commission on the new system of transparency in aid under the Common agriculture policy (CAP) - in other words, the publication of the names of the beneficiaries - already has sufficient support from the 27 member states of the EU, the Irish Presidency of the Council stated on Monday 25 February.
Despite a few reservations on the part of France, Germany and Slovenia, the agriculture ministers of 16 member states stated that they were overall in favour of the Commission's proposal bringing back the publication of the names of CAP beneficiaries, with an exemption for holdings which receive a low amount (between €500 and €1000). Readers may recall that this proposal, which comes in the framework of the reform of the CAP, responds to a ruling of the Court of Justice of the EU of November 2010, which states that the system then in place infringed privacy requirements. Amongst other things, the judges criticise the fact that in the publication criteria, no distinction was drawn “as regards the duration, frequency or type and amount of aid received”.
During a discussion among the ministers, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Estonia, the United Kingdom and Sweden lamented the exemption provided for small beneficiaries, whilst Hungary, Finland, Austria, Malta, Luxembourg and Ireland opposed the idea of divulging the names of physical persons. “It is not necessary to add society controls, or neighbourly controls, to public controls”, said the Luxembourg minister, Romain Schneider.
Dacian Ciolos, European Commissioner for Agriculture, said that the new rules proposed by the Commission take account of the objections made by the Court of Justice in the sense that they are based on a more detailed justification, on the basis of a need for public controls on the use of European agricultural funds. They provide for information to be provided on the nature of the aid and the description of the measures for which the funds are allocated, and they respond to the concern of proportionality, with a de minimis threshold, below which the name of the beneficiary will not be published, whether this is a physical person or legal entity, the Agriculture Commissioner explained. This mechanism is “an element of credibility for a policy to which the European summit has proposed to grant nearly 38% of the Community budget over the period 2014-2020”, he added. (LC/transl.fl)