EU farm subsidies: who's benefiting?
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 17 February 2020
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Is the European farm subsidy system being left vulnerable to corruption? Each year the EU pays out billions of euros to landowners. But a New York Times investigation found that in parts of Eastern Europe, EU farm subsidies have created what it calls a "new kind of feudalism". We speak to the New York Times investigative reporter Matt Apuzzo, and we hear a response from the European Commission's agricultural policy spokesperson Daniel Rosario.
Producer: Joshua Thorpe.
(Picture: A combine harvester on a corn field. Credit: Getty Images).
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC with me, Manuela Saragossa. Coming up, who's benefiting from the European Union's farm subsidies? |
| 0:11.9 | This program, this agricultural subsidy program, now underwrites this really weird kind of new feudalism. |
| 0:21.1 | We speak to the New York Times investigative journalist |
| 0:23.9 | who dug up the dirt on EU farm subsidies in Hungary. |
| 0:27.7 | What's the EU's response? |
| 0:29.5 | What I can say is that we do have solid rules and procedure in place |
| 0:34.2 | to make sure that every euro is well spent. |
| 0:36.9 | That's all here in Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 0:44.0 | In 2016, Business Daily reported from Sicily about mafia gangs who were forcibly seizing land |
| 0:50.8 | from farmers and businesses there. |
| 0:53.1 | And they were doing that so that they could use |
| 0:55.0 | that land to claim hundreds of thousands of euros in EU farm subsidies. The mafia's tactics in |
| 1:00.7 | Sicily were often violent. Regular listeners will remember the park ranger of Sicily's |
| 1:05.3 | Nebredi Park, Giuseppe Antochi, who tried to protect his park land from illegal land claims and was almost killed in the process. |
| 1:13.7 | Here's a reminder from our report at the time. |
| 1:20.6 | This is a beautiful place, fabulous nature. |
| 1:27.1 | A massacre was averted here, yet another massacre. But that night, |
| 1:32.1 | the authorities fought back and the authorities won. |
| 1:39.1 | We'd gone to a place just up from here to speak to some young people about economic opportunities and development for this area. |
| 1:50.0 | Afterwards, we got into our car and left. |
| 1:54.1 | After a little while, I fell asleep in the car. |
| 1:57.8 | Then I woke up when I heard my armed guard in the car saying, what are those stones? |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.