Part of 1. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:59 pm on 28 February 2017.
I thank John Griffiths for that question because we make it very clear in our White Paper, ‘Securing Wales’ Future’, that Wales is leaving the EU but not Europe, and we strongly believe that Wales and the UK should continue to participate in those key EU programmes. You mention Horizon 2020; that’s supporting research and development projects between higher education and private sector partners. Erasmus+: again, those education exchanges can transform the prospects and opportunities of young people. We want to see a far-reaching and far clearer commitment from the UK Government to securing this outcome from the Brexit negotiations and, of course, they form part of the negotiations, which Cabinet Secretaries are engaged with. But you also mention Ireland. That is also crucially important because we have the Ireland-Wales programme, the directly managed programme, which we are responsible for, which also includes a number of very important R&D projects and, indeed, projects and initiatives that can improve and constructively help Wales as well as Ireland.