The James Hutton Institute has endorsed a statement sent to ministers and MPs calling on the UK to remain part of the EU’s cross-border funding programmes after Brexit. The campaign is supported by a wide range of public and private sector bodies, including councils, universities, enterprise agencies and charities. Transnational organisations and neighbouring regional and local authorities in France and Norway have also supported the statement.
Over the past 25 years, these programmes known as European Territorial Cooperation or Interreg for short, have invested millions of pounds into local and regional economies across Britain in order to boost investment, create jobs, protect the environment and to improve the skills of our young people. Since 2000, UK organisations have led a total of 697 projects and participated in another 1453 ETC projects as project partners.
Signatories are calling upon the government to negotiate the UK’s continued participation in these programmes so that UK organisations can continue to cooperate with our European neighbours for the benefit of our local communities. Without UK participation in Interreg, many local initiatives that improve the lives of local residents would simply not be able to happen.
Cllr Kevin Bentley, Chairman of the East of England European Partnership, said: “Brexit means we are leaving the institutions of the EU, but we are not leaving Europe! We must find ways to continue working with our European friends and neighbours and Interreg helps us do that.
“Interreg has brought a huge amount of value to councils and charities across the UK. Our continued participation is essential in helping councils to deliver their local growth agendas”.
Professor Colin Campbell, Chief Executive of the James Hutton Institute, added: “We gain many benefits from having unrestricted access to European funding streams and the UK, Scotland and the James Hutton Institute do exceptionally well from these.
“Our collaborative approach has meant significant advances in science and how we deploy it, with and for society. Science is the main hope for solving many of our ecological, environmental, technological and health problems. It must not be forgotten in the debate about our future relationship with the EU.”
Read below the statement on 10 reasons why the UK should participate in European Territorial Cooperation (ETC) that has been endorsed by the James Hutton Institute:
Bernardo Rodriguez-Salcedo [1], Media Manager, Tel: +44 (0)1224 395089 [2] (direct line), +44 (0)344 928 5428 [3] (switchboard) or +44 (0)7791 193918 [4] (mobile).
Links:
[1] mailto:bernardo.rodriguez-salcedo@hutton.ac.uk?subject=Query%20from%20Hutton%20website
[2] tel:+441224395089
[3] tel:+44344928 5428
[4] tel:+447791193918