Plaid Cymru European Leader Jill Evans MEP and Adam Price MP have warned the Welsh Assembly Government not to raid health and education budgets to make up the reported £15million shortfall in Objective One match funding.

The warning comes after the two senior politicians held an urgent meeting in Brussels with top EU official Graham Meadows - the senior European official responsible for structural funds programmes.

Jill Evans and Adam Price are demanding that instead of raiding budgets for essential public services - which are already under severe pressure - the Labour government in the Assembly should be using Objective One cash to invest in health and education.

Speaking from Brussels, Adam Price MP said:

"Both Jill Evans and myself have become increasingly concerned over recent weeks at the severe pressure put on the Objective One programme by the substantial shortfall in the budget - reported to be running at £15-£20m. This is exclusively due to the economic incompetence of the Labour administration in the Assembly.

"It has been particularly disturbing to hear that they are considering raiding health and education budgets to make up the shortfall. Indeed, far from pulling money out of sensitive areas, they should be using Objective One cash to invest in health and education. The European Commission confirmed to us today that we can use Objective One cash to invest in health related projects.

"It is a sign of the economic incompetence of the Welsh Labour government that they seem simply to have failed to notice this.”

Jill Evans MEP added:

"Chronic ill health is widely recognised as a key factor in explaining economic inactivity and is one area that we should be able to target with Objective One funding. We could, for example, negotiate a change in the programme's terms of reference at the mid term review that would allow us to use the money to build hospitals and invest in other health related projects that could make a real difference.

"Far from talking about raiding health and education budgets to pay for Labour's economic incompetence, we should be using Objective One to invest in these essential public services."

Ends.