LONDON (AFP) – Queen Elizabeth II received 473,583.31 pounds in European agricultural subsidies in 2008, according to figures released Thursday by the department of rural affairs.
The monarch -- who is Britain's 214th richest person with 270 million pounds according to the Sunday Times Rich List -- received the subsidies for her farm at Sandringham.
Prince Charles received 95,222.56 pounds for his estate, the Duchy of Cornwall, and 86,262.98 for the Duchy's farm -- a total of 181,485.54 pounds.
The queen is far from being Britain's biggest beneficiary of the European Union subsidies, a system that eats up almost 40 percent of its entire budget.
Food giants Nestle and Tate & Lyle received 1,018,459.69 pounds and 965,796.78 pounds respectively.
The duke of Westminster, whose 6.5-billion-pound fortune makes him the third richest person in Britain behind steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal and Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, received 486,534.15 pounds for his farms in 2008.
In total, the department's figures show Brussels distributed 2.674 billion pounds in agricultural subsidies across Britain last year.
I wonder if the French are happy.
