§ Mr. Terlezkiasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make a statement on the relationship between the European Economic Community regional fund and the Government's regional aid scheme.
§ Mr. TrippierGrants payable in pursuit of the Government's regional selective assistance scheme under section 7 of the Industrial Development Act 1982 attract support from the European regional development fund under article 2.3(a) of Council regulation (EEC) No. 724/75 of 18 March 1975, as amended. As provided for in article 4.2(a) of the regulation, the ERDF aid is retained by the Government as a partial repayment of their own aid. In addition, areas in which the Government's regional aids are available may also benefit from ERDF support in respect of infrastructure projects undertaken by central and local government and other public authorities, such grants being passed on to the bodies concerned. Expected ERDF contributions are taken into account by the Government in determining the appropriate overall levels of the public expenditure programme concerned.
The regional development grant scheme does not at present attract ERDF support, but the changes proposed to it by the Government, and now being considered by the House, will have the effect of enabling it to do so.