DG Regio’s compendious Fifth Report on Economic, Social and Territorial Cohesion contains a pair of maps looking at CAP expenditure by region.
The first shows the level of Pillar 1 spending per hectare of farmland in in each EU NUTS-3 region over the period 2000-2006.
The second shows the level of Pillar 2 spending per inhabitant in each region between 2007 and 2009.
What do the maps tell us? The first map shows the uneven distribution of direct aids among EU regions of the EU-15. Spain seems to do relatively badly on this score and there is a striking east-west divide in Portugal. Italy resembles a green patchwork quilt, indicating that payments vary considerably among regions. Since the map shows spending from 2000 to 2006, it doesn’t tell us much about the CAP in the new member states, which only joined the EU in 2004.
The second map shows that Austria gets a large amount of EU rural development funding per inhabitant, reflecting a funding formula that takes into account previous national commitments to farmland conservation measures.… Read the rest