European Council

Hywel Williams Excerpts

Monday 11th February 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

If my hon. Friend looks at heading 3, which is the money spent on home affairs, justice and Europol issues, he will see that that budget is going from €12.4 billion to €15.7 billion. I join him in saying that the horsemeat issue is extremely serious. As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said, this is predominantly an issue of food safety, food labelling and truth telling to consumers, but we need to do everything we can to get on top of it.

[Hywel Williams (Arfon) (PC)]

The Prime Minister wants to repatriate regional policy. As a sign of his good intentions, will he guarantee to make up in full any shortfall in cohesion funding for west Wales and the valleys?

[The Prime Minister]

Overall, the amount of structural funds that will be coming to the United Kingdom at around €11 billion is a small reduction, but broadly the same—maybe 2% less. We then have to decide how that money is fairly divided up between the different regions. Of course, west Wales is one of the less developed regions so should benefit from that. We will be making final determinations about how the money is divided up when we know more about the overall figures and the proposal has been passed by the European Parliament.