Leader campaigns for Highland and Island businesses in Europe
The Leader of The Highland Council Councillor Drew Hendry is campaigning to change EU rules to ensure that businesses throughout the Highlands and Islands benefit from EU Regional Aid.
In his role as UK representative on the ruling Political Bureau of the Conference of Peripheral and Maritime Regions, Councillor Hendry is concerned that businesses in Inverness, Moray and Badenoch and Strathspey will continue to miss out on important development grants unless the EU change the eligibility in a current review.
Inverness, Moray, Badenoch & Strathspey has not been eligible for State Aid support since a review in 2011. Shetland businesses are in danger of missing out if the rules are changed in the review. All other areas of the Highlands and Islands meet the eligibility criteria.
The Council has made a submission to the European Commission urging a rethink of the eligibility criteria, a position that was reinforced by Council Leader Drew Hendry when he attended a recent meeting of the influential EU lobbying network -the Conference of Peripheral and Maritime Regions – in Greece.
Councillor Hendry successfully proposed an amendment committing the Bureau to supporting communities in the Highlands and islands being eligible for aid in recognition of the fragility of the economies in remote and island communities.
If the Bureau’s lobbying is successful, Inverness, Badenoch and Strathspey, along with the Shetland Isles would be eligible for financial assistance post 2013.
The Regional Aid guidelines will be confirmed by the European Commission during 2013 and will come into force in 2014 for a seven year period.
Whilst at the meeting, Councillor Hendry also made the case for the CPMR to ramp up the pressure on the European Commission to give greater prominence in terms of policy and financial support to improve the physical accessibility of peripheral regions such as the Highlands & Islands to the heart of Europe via the current core trans-European Transport network.