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Press Releases
North West England region could face EU fine running into tens of millions
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An English region could be fined tens of millions of pounds by the European Commission over its handling of £500million worth of EU funding, an investigation by ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio 4's File On Four (Tuesday 16 October, 8pm) has found.
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The North West England region faces the possible fine following a report by the European Court of Auditors, which found weaknesses in a number of English regions' management and control systems for £4billion of regeneration funding.
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The European Commission in Brussels scrutinised the regions because of concerns over allegedly poor standards of monitoring of the spending of EU grants, and subsequently announced its decision to freeze further payments to six English regions concerned.
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Sources in Brussels have indicated to File On 4 that two of the six – the East and North East of England – have met EU standards and their funding freeze will be lifted. Meanwhile a further three – London, the West Midlands, and Yorkshire and the Humber – are expected to reach the standards in due course.
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North West MEP Arlene McCarthy tells File On 4 that she fears her region may be forced to repay part of the EU funding it received:
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"I have been personally talking to the EC because I wish to ensure there is no fraud or irregularities and that my region can continue to receive funding," she tells the programme. "If there is evidence or mismanagement or fraud or gaps in the audit trail, of course there will have to be repayment."
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Graham Meadows, former Director-General of Regional Policy for the EC, tells the programme that the worst problems the EC encountered were in North West England, which should have been able to put good accounting and auditing systems in place.
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"It's just a question of organisation, it's not difficult: there are auditors, accountants aplenty in the United Kingdom who could do all this kind of stuff," he tells File On 4.
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Notes to Editors
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Please credit Radio 4's File On 4 if using any excerpts of this information.
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MO2
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