What is the Welsh Government doing to speed up the spending of EU funding before we leave the EU?
All European structural and investment fund projects approved before the UK leaves the EU are protected by the UK Government’s full lifetime expenditure guarantee that was announced last October.
So far, the Welsh Government has invested more than £1. 3 billion (68%) of Wales’ £1. 93 billion European Structural Funds allocation for 2014–2020. In addition, we have invested over £547 million to schemes under the Rural Development Programme for 2014–2020 (57% of the programme), including £394 million of EU funds.
We have a strong pipeline of further investments under development and we are committed to making funding decisions as soon as we can so that activities which meet our programme objectives and targets can get underway at the earliest opportunity. However, it remains the case that our ability to invest the remaining funds as planned is dependent on the UK Government’s timescale for leaving the EU.