Energy crop growers are facing a 30% scaleback on the amount of special aid they receive from Brussels, due to excessive plantings throughout Europe.

Currently, energy crop aid is set at €45/ha (about £31/ha), and is available so long as the grower has a contract with a collector or first processor.

But the EU limits the scheme to 2m ha, to ensure that it is contained within the €90m (£62m) budget.

According to latest Commission figures, the total area planted in the 27 member states this year comes to 2.84m ha.

As such, all 2007 claims are being scaled back by around 30%, meaning farmers will get the €45/ha aid on just 70% of the land on which they have claimed.

Commenting on the decision, EU agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said: “This payment has been very useful in stimulating the European biofuels sector.

“But when we come to the “health check” of the CAP next month, we will have to ask whether it is still necessary. We now have a binding target for biofuels and a blossoming marketplace.”

The Commission’s figures show that the UK is the third biggest user of the energy aid scheme in the EU, with 244,000ha claimed. It is only exceeded by France and Germany, with 718,000ha and 653,000ha respectively.

The scheme started in 2004, when the total EU area covered came to just 310,000ha. The Commission says the rapid expansion since then is partly due to various simplification measures it has introduced.