From the article:
In a new paper, researchers from the Centre for Global Development (CGD) work it out for each member. They look at how much subsidy farmers receive and add an estimate of the protection afforded by the EU’s tariffs, which shelter home produce from foreign competition.
Seen in this way, the flow of money looks rather different. Latvia does best: a whopping one-third of its farm income comes from EU support. Greece and Estonia also fare well. Although they champion farm subsidies, France, Luxembourg and Ireland fare only moderately well—as does cap-hating Britain. At the bottom end, Dutch farmers get a mere 7% of their income from EU support. Rather than reflecting deliberate policy choices, these differences reflect the fact that subsidy rates were often linked to historical values of production, or set when a country joined the EU, says Ian Mitchell of the CGD. This might make politicians—and farmers—in some countries more amenable to cuts that make the level of support more uniform.
