I was saving this for the right time. I think with the WTO talks going on in Hong Kong it’s a good time to point you to FarmSubsidy.org. From their news release earlier this month:

Today, an international network of journalists and activists has launched a new website that will enable European citizens to find out who gets what from the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Coordinated from Denmark and the UK, the website is the product of intensive collaborative working across more than ten countries. The website facilitates access data on farm subsidy payments obtained through requests under legislation on public access to information.

In 2004, the CAP paid out €43.5 billion in farm subsidies but unlike most other areas of EU expenditure, the payments have been kept top secret. This began to change in 2004, when DICAR, an organisation of Danish investigative journalists, succeeded in their application for data on farm subsidy payments in Denmark. DICAR has since joined with UK-based non-profit EU Transparency to bring together a network of campaigners in other member states and to build the farmsubsidy.org website.