EUObserver.com

By Lucia Kubosova

20 October 2006

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU member states have supported proposed new rules to unveil individual recipients of all EU funds starting in 2008, with the EU25 asking the European Commission to run a central database for the information.

The transparency principle is part of a revised EU financial regulation the bloc's ambassadors adopted on Thursday (19 October) and paves the way for a publication of beneficiaries of EU farm aid as well as of regional and cohesion funds.

Concrete details must still be worked out - the plan suggests that it should be recipients of EU cash "within certain limits" that should be published and the extent of those limits still needs to be agreed at a more technical level.

"Some countries were concerned that mainly in case of direct subsidies to farmers, it is not every euro that is paid but only receivers of higher amounts that should be unveiled," said an EU diplomat.

While there is a common agreement that the information should be published in 2008 about recipients of funds from the 2007 budget, the timetable could be delayed due to the legislative procedure, which includes consultation with the European Parliament, which is itself pressing for more budgetary control powers.

It is also unclear how the actual publication of data would look, as the member states are pressing the European Commission to take up the job while Brussels says that the national capitals who handle the individual payments should manage disclosure.

Some countries - like Germany - argue that the transparency drive should not lead to a further administrative burden for national authorities, which are already spending large resources to distribute EU funds and comply with complicated EU regulations.

The transparency scheme comes at a sensitive time, with the commission set to launch in 2008 a major review of how to permanently reform the Common Agriculture Policy funding after 2013.

Voluntary disclosures of farm aid beneficiaries by the UK, Netherlands and Denmark in the past two years have damaged CAP credibility by showing that royalty, government ministers and multinational firms pocket the biggest chunks of cash.