The Distribution of Direct Payments of CAP to producers

Abstract. The paper attempts to contribute to the discussion of the agricultural support distribution in the framework of Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union. Author used European Commission statistics of direct payments to explore the distribution patterns across farm holdings in EU Member States. The results show that distribution of direct payments is skewed towards a small number of very large holdings in a few Member States. Across the whole EU, 85 % of direct payments funded from common budget went to the largest 19 % of their recipients in 2005. In Poland, income from direct payments was also unfairly distributed. Key words: direct payments, common agricultural policy, distribution, producers, European Unio