Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 2:02 pm on 30 January 2019.
Thank you for that answer, Minister. Obviously, many of us have often mentioned the shared prosperity fund, because we don't know what it is and where it comes from, but that focuses on European structural funds and regional development fund money. The question I have is: are there other funds in Europe that are coming to institutions in this country? I'll give an example—it was raised with the cross-party group on steel last week—the research fund for coal and steel, which actually funds research into steel areas to ensure that we have a sustainable steel industry for the future, something critical to the Welsh economy. When they raised this question with the Treasury, they were basically told, 'It will go back into the pot', and it will not be ring-fenced for anything, so we may not get a ring-fenced research fund for steel and coal. When you meet the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, can you please raise the issue of any funds that come back from Europe, or that would have been allocated to Europe for particular topics in particular areas—remain in those so that we can benefit from that? Because the loss of something like £200 million to £400 million of accessible funding for research into steel is a huge loss to this country.