Germany could be left with a £5.5billion funding deficit if countries are asked to contribute more money to make up money lost from Britain.
The UK is the second largest contributor to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), behind Germany, and there will be a gaping hole in the budget when we exit the bloc.
A staggering €3billion (£2.7billion) will be cut from the European agriculture budget from 2020 onwards, a study by the European Parliament’s Scientific Service found.
The research says the gap will have to be filled by higher contributions, spending cuts or new EU taxes.
The report also says that cuts to CAP could rise even higher than £2.7billion “if other EU programmes are prioritised”.
Irish Agriculture Minister Michael Creed said that more money is needed to meet challenges like migration and unemployment, but the CAP budget should be left alone.
He told the Farming Independent: “New challenges require new money.
“It is not a reason to raid the budget of the Common Agricultural Policy.”
The report found that that the slash in funding would “disproportionally” affect Germany.
The authors of the report also suggest balancing the funding gap with high contributions from other member states would worsen their net balance.
The Netherlands and Sweden also look to be among the worst hit by the funding gap. Those three countries, along with France, are leading the EU’s hardline stance on the Brexit bill and unlikely to agree to high budget contributions.
Germany, the Netherlands and France will be the worst hit by Brexit as they export a lot of meat, dairy and processed foods to the United Kingdom.
The bilateral trade relations of these three countries together account for 50 per cent of total EU27 trade.