Liverpool’s Mayor has called on European Commissioner Hahn to support efforts to ensure that decisions on EU funding are made by city regions rather than national government.
His intervention follows an announcement on Tuesday that 784 million euros of European Commission funding is being diverted away from England to Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
Commissioner Hahn is responsible for Regional Policy and has leading role for the European Commission in developing the new round of EU Structural Funds for 2014 – 2020.
“The best people to decide how money should be spent are those who live in the area. We understand the challenges, the problems and the solutions. We will make the money go further and ensure that every penny creates jobs, services and wealth for our regions,” said Mayor Joe Anderson.
Liverpool and partners in Liverpool City Region believe that decisions on which projects and initiatives should receive EU funding must be made locally (as had been the case under Objective One).
“There is a risk that too many decisions on EU funding will be decided at the national level. Looking at the next seven years we need to ensure that funding decisions are genuinely made at the local level. The bigger the gap between funding and decision making, the more chance that cash will simply miss the mark. Delegation is vital. The new programme must be delegated.”
“Liverpool people understand Liverpool needs. No one should presume that London-based civil servants know our priorities better than we do”.
