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 beneficiaries of funding from the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) provides that pursuant to Article 44a of Regulation (EC) No 1290/2005 (as amended by Council Regulation (EC) No 1437/2007), Member States are to provide for the 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 previous financial year (from 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 9.11.2010 the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled (by means of a specific 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 similar aid, the frequency or the type and extent of such aid. For the sake of transparency, Regulation (EC) No 259/2008 has therefore been amended by Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 410/2011 in order 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 system taking into account the objections raised by the Court.