EU Structural Funding

Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance – in the Senedd at 1:38 pm on 20 June 2018.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:38, 20 June 2018

Well, can I thank Julie Morgan for that, and thank her, of course, for the work that she does in chairing the programme monitoring committee for Wales? And I know it's been a theme in recent considerations at the programme monitoring committee of the way in which European funding can be used to assist with those cross-cutting themes of equality and sustainability. And I know we've talked in the Chamber here before about the way in which European Union funding has been used specifically to encourage women to participate in advanced manufacturing and in materials as well. We are currently working, Llywydd, to the Chancellor's guarantee, which is that, if we commit European funding by March of next year, he has given an undertaking to cover all of that. My hope is that, at the October Council of Ministers, we will get a period of transition, and that will mean that we can go on using European funding up to the end of the current seven-year period, and for two years beyond. And that will allow us to do what Julie Morgan said—to make sure that the quality of the projects we're able to bring forward will equal that of existing projects.