UAE royal family receives over €71 million in EU agricultural subsidies

The United Arab Emirates’ ruling royal family is receiving tens of millions in EU subsidies to cultivate crops for the Gulf market, a cross‑border investigation by DeSmog shared with CuriosityNews has revealed.

Subsidiaries controlled by the Al Nahyan family collected more than €71 million (£61 million) over six years for farmland they own in Romania, Italy and Spain. The Al Nahyans rank as the world’s second‑richest dynasty, with an estimated fortune exceeding $320 billion (£235 billion), largely stemming from the Emirates’ vast oil reserves.

Under the EU’s common agricultural policy (CAP), roughly one‑third of the bloc’s budget – about €54 billion annually – is paid to farmers and rural areas. A portion of these funds ends up in the hands of foreign investors, including entities linked to autocratic governments.

DeSmog, working with Spain’s El Diario and Romania’s G4Media, analysed data on thousands of CAP beneficiaries from 2019 to 2024, tracing 110 subsidy payments to a network of companies and subsidiaries controlled by the UAE’s Al Nahyan family and its sovereign wealth fund, ADQ.

The largest payment flowed through the Romanian firm Agricost, which operates the EU’s single biggest farm – 57,000 hectares (141,000 acres), five times the area of Paris. CAP subsidies disproportionately favor large landowners; a 2024 CuriosityNews investigation showed that just 17 billionaires received over €3 billion between 2018 and 2021. In 2024 alone, Agricost obtained €10.5 million in direct payments – more than 1,600 times the average EU farm’s receipt.

Activists have warned that the UAE, widely criticised for imprisoning activists, criminalising homosexuality and facing multiple torture allegations – repeatedly denied by the Emirates – benefits from regular EU farm payouts.

The Al Nahyans and the companies mentioned did not reply to repeated requests for comment; ADQ also declined to speak.

The findings emerge as policymakers discuss the CAP’s future. In July 2025 the European Commission unveiled a proposal for the next CAP round (2028‑2034) that could limit land‑based payments to €100,000 per farmer each year. A Commission spokesperson said income support via CAP should be better targeted, including by reducing and capping payments for larger farms, and urged the European Parliament and Council to back the proposed reforms.

“The CAP is not helping EU farmers; it continues to enrich the wealthiest landowners,” said Faustine Bas‑Defossez, director for nature, health and environment at the European Environment Bureau. “And now, even worse, it is fuelling autocratic regimes.”

The Al Nahyans lead the most powerful monarchy in the UAE, a federation of seven emirates each with its own ruling family.