MEP warns project manager of threat to EU funds

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 27th Sep 2004

Cllr Mike Lewis (Chair), Graham Watson MEP, Philippa Hawks (Chair of Somerset Community Council) and Keith Harrison (Somerset Levels & Moors LEADER+ Programme Manager)

South West Lib Dem MEP Graham Watson will today warn managers of EU- funded Leader+ projects that their funding is under threat - from their own national government!

Addressing a LEADER+ conference in Compton Dundon, Somerset, this morning - at which he will be briefed on the progress of many Leader+ projects in the County - Graham Watson will say:

"Somerset and other SW counties have benefited hugely from the EU's structural funds. The Leader+ programme has been of particular value because it involves little red tape and helps fund the kind of small scale projects which make such a difference to rural areas. But Gordon Brown has launched proposals at EU level which would put an end to all these projects by eliminating structural fund spending in all but the ten new EU member states.

"This plan would hit Somerset, Devon and Cornwall very hard and is yet another example of how New Labour fails to understand the needs of rural areas."