England's Money is stolen by the British because England does not have its own Parliament

Regions lose £671m of EU funding

Allister Hayman, Regeneration & Renewal, 26 January 2009

England's poorest regions have lost up to £671 million in European funding to the Treasury after the UK Government refused an invitation by Brussels to extend the spending deadline for unused European regional aid programmes.
According to European Commission figures obtained by Regeneration & Renewal, England's poorest regions will miss out on up to EUR712 million (£671 million), after the Government refused an unprecedented EC offer to extend by six months the 31 December 2008 deadline for all countries to spend unused 2000-06 European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) cash.
The extension offer was made in December as part of a EUR200 billion fiscal stimulus package from the European Union that was designed to enable all regions receiving ERDF funds to spend the unused money on tackling the recession. The large UK underspend was in part due to the fall in the value of the pound against the Euro.
The UK Government accepted the extension for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, but declined to accept it for England. The unclaimed money will now be taken off the UK's future contribution to the EU, so will effectively go into the Treasury's coffers, rather than directly to the regions, a Treasury spokesman confirmed.
According to the EC figures, this means England's poorest regions will lose out on EUR285 million (£268 million) through the ERDF Objective 1 programme and EUR414 million (£389 million) through the ERDF Objective 2 scheme. In contrast, the potential windfall for Wales is EUR64 million (£60 million) across Objective 1 and 2, while Scotland stands to gain EUR57 million (£54 million) and Northern Ireland EUR27 million (£25 million).
Eight areas, including the Thames Gateway, Peterborough and Bristol, also stand to lose a total of EUR13 million (£12 million) from the ERDF Community Initiative Programme, the EC figures show.
A spokesman for Danuta Hubner, the European commissioner for regional policy, said that almost every other EU member state had accepted the invitation and that he was "surprised" the UK Government had declined the extension for England. "There is a lot of money left in the pot for the English regions and that's money they now won't be able to get," he said.
A Department for Communities and Local Government spokeswoman said the Government had decided against the extension because a cost-benefit analysis found it did not represent "best value for money".
She said: "It is not free money and would incur additional costs." She added that the EC requires its funding to be matched by private or public resources, and that this could not be found in such a "little time".
But Fiona Hall, a Liberal Democrat MEP for the North-East, which stands to lose EUR72 million (£67 million), said this was a "poor excuse".
She said: "(This) is a smokescreen for a money-grabbing Government trying to find funds from anywhere to help settle its financial problems. It's more likely that the Government has realised that any unclaimed money can be taken off the UK's contribution to the EU, going right back into Whitehall pockets."
The news comes as the UK Government faces paying a further £57 million in EC fines for "basic housekeeping" failures in its EC-funded programmes (see News, p3). The DCLG has already set aside cash for impending EC fines of up to £230 million (R&R, 22 August 2008, p1).
KEY POINTS
- Whitehall snatches £671m of English regional aid, but other UK nations enjoy Euro windfall
- Angry English regions demand the return of millions in European aid
- Government faces further fines for errors in its handling of European money

Fight British Racism - Fight against racism directed against England and the English