Governments in Europe launched websites in September that reveal the recipients of certain European agricultural subsidies, as part of new regulations for disclosing the recipients of EU funds. However, a group that champions better transparency in EU farm subsidies has drawn attention to several deficiencies in the requirements.

The websites must cover payments made under rural development programmes —data related to all other CAP payments are not due until April 2009 —and should include the name and municipality of subsidy recipients, and how much they receive between 1 January 2007 and 15 October 2007.

However, Farmsubsidy.org, a network of journalists and researchers who have pushed for greater public disclosure of farm subsidies in Europe, has pointed to a number of drawbacks in the EU regulations. For one, “member states are not required to give any information explaining why the money was paid,” writes Jack Thurston, a co-founder a Farmsubsidy.org.

“If the idea of transparency is to build legitimacy, the omission of information on schemes is a serious error on the part of EU institutions that drafted the new rules and the Member State governments that have implemented them,” says Mr. Thurston.

The individual websites have also come under criticism, particularly the Irish website, which Farmsubsidy.org calls a “mockery of the principles of EU budget transparency.” The site only allows searches by specific names and locations, so unless you know exactly who you are looking for, you will not find any data. The irony, as Farmsubsidy.org points out, is that Ireland receives the most generous share of CAP payments.

For more information the farm subsidy websites, as well as analysis of new information revealed by the sites, see www.farmsubsidy.org.