§ Mr. MorganTo ask the President of the Board of Trade (1) what assurances he gave the member of the European Commission responsible for regional development concerning the application of the additionality principles agreed with her predecessors that would apply to the reduced grant in aid to the Welsh Development Agency and increased dependence of the agency on the European regional development fund; [16848]
(2) if he will list the principal points raised in his meeting with the European Commission member responsible for regional development on Thursday 23 March; what representations were made in relation to the additionality issue; and if he will make a statement. [16849]
§ Mr. Heseltine[holding answer 28 March 1995]: My right hon. Friend the Minister for Industry and Energy and I both met Dr. Wulf-Mathies on 23 March. We discussed means of improving the European structural funds value for money throughout the EU; the importance of combating fraud and mismanagement; EU grants in Northern Ireland; regional challenge; and the importance of private sector financial contributions to structural funds programmes.
The Commissioner raised points about the composition of United Kingdom structural funds monitoring committees, and the resources available for the administration of programmes. These are matters for the United Kingdom.
Dr. Wulf-Mathies mentioned that the Commission had received representations from Merseyside and from Wales described as concerning "additionality". It appeared, however, that these representations did not relate to the regulatory provision, which requires additionality only at the level of each objective, not separately for individual areas, measures, projects or beneficiaries. The Welsh Development Agency was not mentioned.