EU funding in limbo: what the Tories aren’t telling you
By David Livey
The UK government has announced limited measures to plug the gap in EU funding left in the wake of Brexit.
The Brexit campaign’s claims about the £350 million the UK would claw back from the EU each week to spend on the NHS have been exposed for the lies they were – with the Treasury announcement falling short of the required amount to protect even existing funding.
No comprehensive, long-term guarantee has been provided to Scotland’s farmers, fishing industry, or those communities that rely on EU funding. The limited measures announced – for a small number of schemes and for a few short years at most – mean that £750 million of funding is not yet guaranteed.
Here’s what the UK government isn’t telling you.
Funding for Scotland’s farmers faces an uncertain future.
The Common Agricultural Policy – “CAP” for short – provides a system of support for farmers throughout the EU. CAP is split into two Pillars. Pillar 1 covers direct payments and is worth about £0.5 billion a year to farmers in Scotland. Pillar 2 covers sustainable economic growth in rural areas and is available to a much wider range of businesses and organisations.
The Treasury’s announcement means that Pillar 1 funding will be guaranteed up until 2020, and only Pillar 2 funding with contracts in place by the UK Autumn Budget Statement will be guaranteed. This means vital EU funding, worth hundreds of millions to Scotland’s rural economy, might be lost.
The Scottish Government Rural Secretary, Fergus Ewing, has written to Andrea Leadsom, the UK Government’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, calling for a guarantee over these funds.
Find out more about CAP here.
Funding for Scotland’s fishing industry has been given no guarantees at all.
The European and Maritime Fisheries Fund – or the EMFF – is an EU funding programme open to fishermen, processors, fishing communities and Scotland’s aquaculture sector.
For those European Maritime Fisheries projects beginning after the UK government’s Autumn Statement, no guarantees have been provided.
Find out more about the European Maritime Fisheries Fund here.
Funding supporting Scotland’s communities, jobs and investment has been left in limbo.
Beyond the Autumn Statement later this year, no guarantees have been given for key EU funds worth hundreds of millions and supporting jobs and infrastructure projects in communities across Scotland.
ARTICLE SOURCE: http://www.snp.org/eu_funding_in_limbo_what_the_tories_arent_telling_you
