The United Arab Emirates’ ruling royal family is benefiting from tens of millions in EU subsidies to grow crops destined for the Gulf, it can be revealed.

A cross-border investigation by DeSmog and shared with the Guardian found subsidiaries controlled by the Al Nahyans collected more than €71m (£61m) in six years for farmland it controls in Romania, Italy and Spain.

The Al Nahyan family is the second richest in the world, with an estimated wealth of more than $320bn (£235bn), mostly derived from the Emirates’ vast oil reserves.

Subsidies under the common agricultural policy (Cap) make up a third of the EU’s entire budget, paying out about €54bn each year to farmers and rural areas across the bloc.

But an unknown proportion of this ends up in the hands of foreign investors – including those controlled by autocratic states.

DeSmog, in partnership with Spain’s El Diario and Romanian news outlet G4Media, reviewed data for thousands of Cap beneficiaries between 2019 and 2024, tracing 110 European subsidy…