Plan to speed up Euro grants

The Objective One grant aims to regenerate the valleys

The Welsh Assembly Government is looking at ways of speeding up the way European grant money is given to the poorest parts of Wales.

There has been much criticism about the way £1.2bn of Objective One money has been spent and of delays in allocating funds.

The Objective One money is being provided over seven years to aid the regeneration of the economic blackspots of west Wales, the south Wales valleys and areas of north west Wales.

In January 2002, a progress report from the Welsh European Funding Office revealed £60m less had been channelled to projects than originally promised.

Last December, a committee of AMs found that applicants for money have to go through 11 separate stages and wait more than three months on average for approval.

The committee warned that Wales could lose funds if money was not committed quickly enough.

And in January of this year, a computer glitch at the Welsh assembly was blamed for figures which showed that the Objective One programme had created just 44 jobs in the two years of the project so far.

Welsh Minister for Economic Development and Transport, Andrew Davies, claimed the true figure was 6,000 jobs created.

Mr Davies has promised to speed up the delivery of the second half of the Objective One funding.

The Objective One Programme Monitoring Committee (PMC) will meet this week to look at ways to get the money to groups who successfully apply for it more quickly.

'New opportunities'

Mr Davies said: "The mid-term evaluation process has given us the ideal opportunity to look at what we have achieved from Structural Funds and identify new ways of making European funding more responsive to the needs of applicants.

"Now the scheme is up and running - and creating thousands of new opportunities throughout Wales - we can build on our delivery approach to ensure that the momentum of quality projects coming forward to access funds continues until the end of the programming period.

"The proposals for change should lead to a reduction in the overall time taken to decide on project applications."

To date, Objective One has seen more than £465 million committed to around 770 projects across west Wales and the valleys.

Areas of Wales have been eligible for Objective One money for more than two years.

The fund is only paid to the poorest parts of the European Union.