A shocking report by the European Court of Auditors has revealed that greening payments under the EU Common Agricultural Policy’s (CAP) were not leading to environmental improvements and has led to calls to radically reform state support for agriculture after Brexit. However after improving just 5 per cent of farmland the subsidy has been blasted as a failure.

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Greening is a direct payment introduced with the EU’s 2013 CAP reforms, designed to reward farmers for having a positive impact on the environment. It is the only direct payment whose main stated objective is environmental. But Billions of pounds of European Union subsidies to encourage green farming were pocketed by farmers who did nothing to protect the environment with the money, the EU's financial watchdog has found.

The ‘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.

In response the Government has made clear, the Common Agricultural Policy has been inefficient, ineffective and environmentally harmful and leaving the EU is a golden opportunity to free our farmers.

UK national media coverage of the report has called for Britain to reform agricultural support after EU exit, with the report highlighting the highly complex nature of payments, which it says are not yet environmentally effective.

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”.

Theresa May has already told MPs that Britain could attempt to break with European Union rules on fishing and farming during the post-Brexit transition period a move which could create a fresh conflict with Brussels which has stressed that the UK should stick to the status quo in its relationship with the EU during that two-year period. “We will be leaving the European Union on March 29th 2019. We will therefore be leaving the Common Fisheries Policy and the Common Agricultural Policy at that date.”

“The relationship we have on both those issues continuing through the implementation period with the European Union will be part of the negotiation of that period which will start very soon.” Mrs May added: “Leaving the CFP and leaving the CAP give us the opportunity to actually introduce arrangements that work for the United Kingdom.”

She said the Environment Secretary, Michael Gove, was already discussing with agriculture and farming leaders the arrangements for their industries after Brexit. 

However, the significance of Mrs May’s remarks was played down by Whitehall sources who said Britain would formally leave all EU institutions in 2019 but wanted to avoid disruption to business during the transitional period. ‘

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is the EU’s system of farming subsidies and market measures supporting 12 million farmers. Long-championed by the French, it has been hit with scandals over waste, fraud and mismanagement over the years, including the creation of notorious butter mountains and wine lakes in the 1980s.