The so-called ‘greening subsidy’ costs the European Union £10.6billion a year – making up a huge chunk of the Common Agricultural Policy’s (CAP) £51billion budget.
But despite spending more than the UK’s net contribution of £8.6billion from last year on the project, just 5 per cent of the EU’s 150million hectares of farmland have been made more ecologically friendly as a result.
Samo Jereb of the European Court of Auditors said: “Greening remains essentially an income support scheme.
“As currently implemented, it is unlikely to enhance the CAP’s environmental and climate performance significantly”.
Auditors who revealed the shocking figure warned that the system had not only failed in its goal to make farmland greener – it had also made the subsidy system even more complex.
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The policy provides any EU farmers with more than ten hectares of land an average of £70 per hectare to protect water and animal habitats, conserve grassland and diversify crops.
A spokesperson for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) said British farming policy could do better after the nation leaves the bloc’s bureaucracy behind.
They said: “The Common Agricultural Policy has been inefficient, ineffective and environmentally harmful and leaving the EU is a golden opportunity to free our farmers.
“As we prepare to leave the EU, we will work with our food and farming industry, as well as environmentalists to change the way we invest in our countryside and better support our farmers to protect wildlife, enhance the environment and improve land use.”
President of the National Farmers’ Union Meurig Raymond added: “For decades, UK farming has been subject to policies set at a pan-European level, implementing successive CAP reforms driven from the European stage.
“Once we leave the EU, we will have the opportunity to develop a new deal for British farmers and citizens – one in which farm businesses are provided with the incentives, rewards and means to become more profitable and resilient and to better meet the expectations and needs of society at large”.
Meanwhile NGO the European Environmental hit out at the system as “just green window dressing”, blasting the European Commission for not paying out to farmers with a results-based strategy.
However, despite widespread criticism, the European Commission defended the measure.
They told the European Court of Auditors the subsidy “has the potential to enhance the environmental and climate performance of the CAP compared to the period before its introduction”.