Welcome to farmsubsidy.org
Farmsubsidy.org uses freedom of information law to force European governments to release detailed data on who gets what from Europe's €55 billion Common Agricultural Policy. We then make this data available in an online database on this website. Data released is highly variable both in quality and completeness. Some countries have refused to release any data.
Read more about the project in The Guardian newspaper. Want to get involved?
Visit our sister site, CAP Health Check
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Data online
- €66 018 864 333
- 12 145 587 payments
- 6 454 172 recipients
- 21 countries
3 323 436 searches
since 1 Dec 2005
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Latest news 
posted by Jack Thurston
Just over three years ago I asked the Rural Payments Agency to release detailed data on farm subsidy recipients in the UK, going back to 1999/2000, the first year for which a new system of recording payments for audit purposes was introduced. The RPA had earlier that year released a very limited set of data, defective in several ways. I knew that the government held better data than it had released and I thought the public had a right to know exactly how its money had been spent. The RPA refused my request but two weeks ago the Information Commissioner ruled in my favour and gave the government 35 days to hand over the data, or appeal to an information tribunal.
posted by Jack Thurston
Several EU member states have unveiled farm subsidy data websites under the new law on transparency of EU funds. However, of the handful we have seen, only the UK website meets the important legal requirement that as well as a website search tool, users must be provided with the entire data set as a single download.
posted by Jack Thurston
Those of us working at the intersection of transparency, technology and democracy are well-used to how much better things are in the United States, where government agencies routinely publish large data sets in readily-usable formats and fantastic projects like OMB Watch and MAPlight take 'civic hacking' to new levels. This month more inspiration comes across the Atlantic, but this time from south of the border. A group of Mexican NGOs has launched a farm subsidy database. The site works really well and this is largely because the Mexican government released decent data - unlike in Europe were data is released in tiny fragments, often in deliberately restrictive ways.
posted by Jack Thurston
Here is a short briefing note on the disclosure of payments under EU rural development polices. It focusses on the French and UK cases but provides background information relevant to all countries.
Download (PDF format)
posted by Jack Thurston
Yesterday evening the government of the Republic of Ireland produced a website that can only be described as a mockery of the principles of EU budget transparency. The site is highly restrictive and only allows searches for specific names of recipients in specific locations. If you don't already know the name you are looking for and the location, then you won't get any data. This is in clear breach of the principles of the new EU financial regulation and the terms of the implementing regulations and Commission guidance. In our view the Irish government is in breach of its obligations under EU law. The Government of the Republic of Ireland should not be allowed to stick two fingers up at the European taxpayers who pay for the CAP and have a right to know how their money is spent. Ireland receives the most generous share of CAP funds of any EU member state.
posted by Jack Thurston
Three years ago, La Tribune, a French newspaper, published details on a handful of recipients of EU farm subsidies. In its editorial, the paper said that the figures were second only to the 'nuclear codes' in terms of state secrets. Well today, we have the first fruits of farmsubsidy.org's campaign for transparency. Under new EU budget rules today is the deadline for all member states to release data on the rural development element of the CAP.
posted by Jack Thurston
By the end of the month the European Commission will unveil a new website database containing detailed information on 24,000 recipients of EU funding. The initiative was announced earlier this week by Commission Vice President Siim Kallas, who has consistently pushed forward the transparency agenda since 2005, in many cases overcoming the opposition of reluctant Commission colleagues.