§ Mr. AltonTo ask the President of the Board of Trade which EC member states permit European regional development fund grant to be accessed using wholly private sector match funding; and what are the reasons for Her Majesty's Government not permitting the same procedure.
§ Mr. EggarThe Government do permit European regional development fund grant to be "accessed using wholly private sector match funding"—projects to be financed by the fund and the private sector alone. I refer the hon. Member to my reply to the hon. Member for Liverpool, Broadgreen (Mrs. Kennedy) on 20 February 1995,Official Report, columns 31-32.
§ Mr. AltonTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement on the details of the models which the Government have developed and submitted to the Commission for facilitating objective 1 funding.
§ Mr. EggarI take it that the hon. Member is referring to the Government's proposals, mentioned in the reply I gave him on 20 February 1995,Official Report, column 31, for facilitating private sector contributions to projects to which the European regional development fund makes grants.
I do not intend to make these proposals public in advance of the Commission's response.
They relate not only to objective 1 grants but to ERDF grants generally.