Beneficiaries of EAGF and EAFRD funding:payments

Payments
Commission Regulation (EC) No 259/2008 laying down detailed rules for the application of Council Regulation (EC) No 1290/2005 as regards the publication of information on the beneficiaries of financing from the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) provides that:
Article 44a of Regulation (EC) No 1290/2005 (as amended by Council Regulation (EC) No 1437/2007) requires Member States to ensure annual ex-post publication of the beneficiaries of EAGF and EAFRD appropriations and the amounts received by each beneficiary for each of those Funds.

This information shall be published, by 30 April of each year in respect of the preceding financial year (16.10 to 15.10), on a single website for each Member State and shall remain available on the website for two years from the date of its initial publication.

On 09.11.2010, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled (through a judgment on the publication of information on beneficiaries of European agricultural funds) that the publication of personal data relating to natural persons is not proportionate, without making distinctions on the basis of relevant criteria such as the periods during which they received such aid, the frequency or the type and amount of such aid.

In the interests of transparency, Regulation (EC) No 259/2008 was therefore amended by Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 410/2011 to limit to legal persons the obligation to publish information on beneficiaries of payments under the common agricultural policy (CAP), pending the adoption by the European Parliament and the Council of a new regime taking into account the objections raised by the Court.