The desire for more European Union transparency suffered a setback on Tuesday after the European Court of Justice ruled that publication of databases listing recipients of agricultural subsidies breached farmers’ human rights.

The court reversed EU rules that make it compulsory for member states to identify all recipients of Common Agricultural Policy money, worth €56bn a year.

The EU court found in favour of the Germans Volker und Markus Schecke GbR, an agricultural firm and Hartmut Eifert, a full-time farmer  behind the legal action. They argued that publishing the name, address and details of subsidies an individual had received on a website did not strike the right balance between promoting transparency and the beneficiary’s right to privacy.

In Ireland the Department of Agriculture immediately took down the list of those in Ireland who received more than €1.9 billion in subsidies from the EU last year and said they were taking legal advice.

The Court Ruling.

The Court accordingly concludes that, by imposing an obligation to publish personal data relating to each natural person who was a beneficiary of aid under the EAGF and the EAFRD without drawing a distinction based on relevant criteria such as the periods during which those persons received such aid, the frequency of such aid or the nature and amount thereof, the Council and the Commission exceeded the limits imposed by compliance with the principle of proportionality. To that extent, it is thus necessary to declare invalid certain provisions of Regulation No 1290/2005 and to declare Regulation No 259/2008 invalid in its entirety

Click here for full text of ruling.