Screaming and kicking, EU countries are being forced to reveal who gets most of the��50 billion paid out each year under the EU’s discredited Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The first results are shocking for taxpayers and confirm what many people have long suspected – each year the CAP takes tens of billions from�hard-working taxpayers�to give to the very rich. Some of the biggest beneficiaries are Europe’s largest sugar companies. In 2008, two Italian sugar producers really hit the jackpot. Italia Zuccheri got 139.8� million euros (�126 million) of our cash, while rival Italian company picked up a healthy 125.3 million (�113 million).�Also up there with the winners was Britain’s very own Tate and Lyle which�receives over �120 million a year of our cash to keep its directors in the style to which�they have become accustomed.
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The�EU claims the aim of the CAP is “to ensure that farmers make a decent living”. However around �43 billion of the CAP’s �50 billion goes straight into the�bank accounts of Europe’s�largest food companies and wealthiest�landowners, while the average�real farmer receives less than �5,000 a year.�
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It’s a pity that none of our politicians have ever had the courage to stop this scandalous embezzlement of taxpayers’ money by the rich and powerful.