Farm support, who gets what?
Since 2004, all Danes have been able to see what support is being paid to Danish farmers and businesses from EU funds in Brussels. Journalists Keld Hansen and Niels Mulvad of the Danish International Center for Analytical Reporting (DICAR) won a case through the Danish Ombudsman and obtained the information which the Danish Government and the European Commission never wanted to supply to the Danish Members of the European Parliament. Since then half of the Member States of the EU have published agricultural support either completely or in part.
Support data can be viewed on http://www.farmsubsidy.org/.
The Commission has promised to set up a website on which it will be possible to see who gets what. All countries will be covered from 2009. At present, farm support throughout the EU is paid out by 90 national EU offices and is refunded from EU resources. The term used is ‘shared management’. The EU Court of Auditors, the EU Ombudsman and the Budgetary Control Committee of the European Parliament do not have authority to scrutinise all payments. The Commission has so far refused to supply the information, even to Members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Budgetary Control.
