€130 million from the EU end up in the bullring

"Do German or Swedish citizens know that part of their taxes, which theoretically go to a fund to create a better Europe, actually end up in the bullring?" That is the question members of the Catalan Parliament asked in Madrid the very day that the Spanish Congress was debating whether to declare bullfighting as a Protected National Pursuit. This may lead to bullfights being held again in Catalonia, despite the fact that the Catalan Parliament banned them democratically. In this context, the Catalan republicans have prepared a report (PDF) on the subsidies of up to €700 million that bullfighting received, €130m of which come from the European Union.

The report, already referred to in The Financial Times, details how bullfighting "is heavily subsidised", and highlights how, without such aid, "these activities would probably financially collapse and would actually disappear". The study highlights that, according to their own farmers and scholars, the breeding of fighting bulls is not a profitable business any longer, and it considers that "were bullfights to be left to the market forces, they would go bankrupt –and both supporters and detractors agree that without subsidies this is a business with no future."

The €130 million that bullfighting receives from Europe, "primarily through the Common Agricultural Policy plans" is the Achilles heel of the so called "Fiesta Nacional". That is to say, the EU provides aid to promote Spanish livestock, and these farmers include the fighting bull ranchers and breeders. Furthermore, the Catalans are critical of the fact that aid from several Spanish public entities –whether various ministries, autonomous regions, municipalities or even RTVE (Spanish public TV)– is assigned to bullfights for an amount exceeding €570 million a year. In addition bullfights are shown during children's viewing time.

Source: Nació Digital