It is unlikely that the greening of payments introduced as part of the 2013 reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has significantly enhanced the CAP’s performance with regard to the environment and climate because, even without payment, a large number of the subsidised practices would have been applied at any rate. That is the main conclusion of the highly critical report published by the European Court of Auditors (ECA) on Tuesday 12 December.
The ECA says that greening – a...