Europe can spend 128.5 billion Euro annually. Nearly half, about 42 percent, is spent within the agricultural sector. For some time now, the distribution of subsidies for a number of countries has been transparent up to the level of the company that gets the money.
France gets the biggest share from the subsidy fund. The country receives 9.619 billion Euro for agriculture annually, making France by far the biggest receiver. Spain comes second, with nearly 7 billion Euro, followed by Germany (6.1 billion Euro), Italy (5.5 billion dollars) and Poland (5 billion Euro).
Poland received Marshall Plan twice over
The latter country has benefited a lot from the European subsidies. British newspaper The Guardian calculated that since joining the EU, Poland has received roughly twice the amount of the Marshall Plan. Since joining the European Union in 2004, the agricultural sector in Poland has grown enormously. In 2014, the EU looked into the development in Poland. The number of agricultural companies had gone down by thirty percent, while the acreage per company nearly doubled. The average income went up by 115 percent between 2004 and 2012, an average annual growth of about ten percent compared to the average salary in other sectors.
But Poland is also one of the countries to come into disrepute about the subsidies received. In June, a Polish research institute published a report showing that subsides were requested for planting organic orchards. No fruit was harvested from the trees though, the study said. Around 14,500 Polish growers were said to profit from the subsidy. Although the acreage increased eightfold, the yield per hectare went down from fifteen tonnes to one tonne per hectare, the report says.
