2. What action is the Welsh Government taking to secure funding for programmes currently funded by the EU through structural funds? OQ55895

I thank Dai Rees for that question, Llywydd. The promise that Wales would not be a penny worse off by leaving the European Union has met with little success. The UK Government has refused to negotiate continuing participation in inter-territorial co-operation programmes, for example, worth over €100 million to Wales. The Welsh Affairs Select Committee describes progress on the shared prosperity fund as 'negligible'.

Thank you for that answer, First Minister. Many communities across my constituency have benefited from projects that have been funded by the European Union through structural funds—whether that's been skills-based—they would never have been able to receive otherwise, and these communities are now developing as a consequence of that. Now, as you say, we were promised 'not a penny lost' at the time, but the shared prosperity fund still seems to be lacking total detail, and I'm hearing in fact that they may well wish to bypass Welsh Government in that funding. Now, given the comments made by the Prime Minister last night, is it worrying that this shared prosperity fund may therefore not deliver the same types of programmes that would help our communities but in fact will keep just the projects that the Tory Government in Westminster want and nothing else?

Well, Llywydd, that is a major concern for not just the Welsh Government but all the partners that we have across Wales and who have worked with us so carefully, led very often by our colleague Huw Irranca-Davies, in order to devise a regional economic strategy for Wales that will make use of the replacement funds that we were told were guaranteed to be available to us. Now, I quoted the Welsh Affairs Select Committee, Llywydd. I do so because it has a Conservative majority and a Conservative Chair, from Wales, and this is what they said about it:

'The UK Government', they said,

'announced as far back as 2017 that it intended to replace EU funding with a Shared Prosperity Fund...yet details remain scant on key aspects, including how much Wales will receive under the new arrangements, how it will be administered and to whom it will be targeted.'

Its repeated promises of a consultation have failed to materialise, progress has been negligible, and it demonstrates a lack of priority. Well, that simply isn't good enough. These are major issues that matter in every part of Wales, including, as Dai Rees said, in his constituency. People in Wales are entitled to know that the promise that was made to them is going to be kept—not a penny less and not a power stolen. And that's what we will be holding the UK Government to account over.

First Minister, I wonder if I could ask you about what can be learned from the Scottish example. EU funds have in the past been used to invest in infrastructure, as we know, and as Dave Rees has just alluded to. Do you share my view that our National Infrastructure Commission for Wales could not only learn some valuable lessons from the experiences in Scotland, where their commission is committed to being outward looking, forward thinking and innovative, but we could radically rethink our strategy to attract investment in Wales, as we move out of the pandemic and grow back greener—however you want to describe it—as there are ways to work differently in the future and make the most of the funds that we do have?

Llywydd, I'm very happy always to learn from lessons elsewhere. Part of the huge benefit of being members of the European Union has been that it has allowed us to learn from the experience of other member states in the way that they have deployed European funding, as they have, in turn, learnt from Wales about some of the ways that we have done things here. And where there are good examples elsewhere inside the United Kingdom, then the Welsh Government is always open to learning from experiences that can help us to make the most of the funding that we have. The problem is we don't know the funding and we don't know how it's going to be used. 

First Minister, many businesses in Wales felt that past EU structural funding programmes were held back by far too many rules and overly bureaucratic processes and, as a result, some programmes failed to deliver upon their stated aims, namely to raise the economic prosperity of Wales and our people. So, First Minister, what discussions have you had with the UK Government about ensuring that replacement structural funding programmes are flexible and responsive to the needs of Welsh businesses and the Welsh population? 

Well, Llywydd, it's one of the sadnesses that we've had almost no opportunities at all to have those conversations. My colleague Jeremy Miles, who leads for the Welsh Government on these matters, wrote to the Minister said to be responsible for the shared prosperity fund, back in October, asking for meetings with UK Government Ministers in order to be able to contribute some of our thinking and to take advantage of some of the flexibilities that could be there in the future. A meeting was never provided.

We've had one meeting with the Secretary of State for Wales, who promises us further meetings once the Chancellor makes his statement on 25 November. But that's just not good enough. We want to have discussions before the announcement is made, not after it. In that case, we might be able to do some of the things that Caroline Jones was referring to, because I think we have always said that at the other side of the European Union there may be more flexibilities—we may be able to use the money differently geographically, we may be able to draw in other funds in a way that you can't within the European Union, we may be able to use money for purposes that the EU rules did not allow us to use the money for here in Wales. There are some opportunities here. We have identified them with our partners. We would like to have had an opportunity to share that with the UK Government and, despite asking for those opportunities, they have never come our way.