The Queen of England, Prince Albert of Monaco and Cargill, the US agriculture group, are some of the big individual beneficiaries of the Common Agricultural Policy. But the biggest overall winner from European Union farming subsidies is undoubtedly France.

French farmers received €9.4bn ($11bn, £6.3bn) of CAP handouts last year, more than a fifth of all European agriculture spending, which in turn accounts for 40 per cent of the entire EU budget.