Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance – in the Senedd at 1:53 pm on 6 December 2017.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:53, 6 December 2017

Llywydd, the Welsh Government's position is clear, that we believe we should remain a subscribing partner of the European Investment Bank. The UK was one of the founding members of the bank, and supplies a significant part of the bank's capital. Wales has been an enormous beneficiary of the European Investment Bank and we want to find a way of that continuing. When I raised this directly with the Chancellor of the Exchequer during a meeting of the Joint Ministerial Committee, he said that he too believed that it would be in the UK's interest to have an ongoing relationship with the EIB. He was open to exploring different ways in which that relationship could be brought about, and he said that, if it wasn't possible to continue to have a relationship with the EIB of the sort we have, it would be necessary to re-create an EIB in the domestic context. I've always struggled to understand why anybody would think that it would be more worth while to have to re-create a whole institution of our own when we have an institution that works, and works very well for Wales, and with which we should surely be looking to secure an ongoing relationship the other side of Brexit.