U.K. Preservation Groups Could Face Big Hit From E.U. Farm Reforms

European Union efforts to reform the bloc’s costly program of agricultural subsidies could drain millions of dollars from Great Britain’s biggest conservation charities, The Guardian says.

The National Trust and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, better known as the RSPB, receive more than $22-million a year from E.U. farm subsidies and agriculture-related environmental programs that are also threatened.

The union is mulling new rules to cap agricultural subsidies—which have long bloated its budget and often end up going to wealthy landowners—at 300,000 euros (about $412,000) per recipient per year. The E.U. is also considering subsidizing only entities that make more than 5 percent of their income from farming, which would cut out the British conservation groups entirely.

A National Trust spokeswoman said the organization “will be talking to [the U.K. government] and Europe to negotiate and make sure that doesn’t happen. We don’t want to panic yet.”