Ontvangers van Europese subsidies online terug te vinden in het kader van transparantie (en)
Since midnight on 30th April, details of all recipients of payments under the Common Agricultural Policy must be publicly accessible on websites managed by Member State authorities. Transparency of EU funds is one of the priorities of this Commission. This is taxpayers' money and they have the right to know how it is used. Germany is the one Member State which has not yet published the data for direct aid payments. The Commission acknowledges that there are legal issues specific to Germany, after injunctions were granted by certain local and regional courts stopping publication in individual cases. The Commission is confident that Germany will take the necessary steps to clear away these obstacles for full publication. However, the Commission also expects Germany to go ahead with the publication of all other beneficiaries not covered by these rulings. If this is not the case, the Commission will not hesitate to initiate infringement proceedings.
"This is an important day in our long-running campaign for transparency," said Mariann Fischer Boel i, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development. "People have the right to know how their money is being spent. 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. We still have an outstanding issue with Germany. The German minister has assured me they are doing all they can to clear the final legal hurdles standing in the way of full publication. We will watch the situation carefully. But I must make it clear that I expect Germany to go ahead with publication except in cases where injunctions remain in place for the time-being."
The Barroso Commission has made the transparency of EU funds a major priority. By 30th April 2009, all Member States had to ensure the publication of a list of all recipients of all forms of EU agricultural and rural development funds. Thanks to this initiative, members of the public may now search for the beneficiaries by name, municipality, amounts received (and the currency concerned) or a combination of these three criteria and extract the information as a single set of data. Recipients of money from the Rural Development fund have already been required to be published since September 2008.
Certain local and regional administrative courts (Verwaltungsgerichte) in Germany have imposed injunctions on the publication in individual cases, citing data protection concerns. However, the higher administrative court (Oberverwaltungsgericht) in Münster has already overturned one of these decisions on appeal, ruling that publication should go ahead. At least two further such decisions are pending.
The national websites can be reached via the following link: