€1BN RESEARCH FUNDING GAP PUTS NORTH EAST JOBS AT RISK - HALL

12.00.00am GMT Thu 11th Mar 2010

A €1bn (£900,000,000) hole in EU investment plans for sustainable energy technology needs to be closed to ensure that the transformation of the North East economy is not stalled, says North East Lib Dem MEP Fiona Hall.

Speaking in a debate in the European Parliament on investing in the development of low carbon technologies, Ms Hall called on the European Commission to be more explicit about available sources of public and private financing for low carbon energy research.

Currently, EU energy research is chronically underfunded compared to the US. The European Commission believes that investment in the EU needs to be increased from the current €3bn (£2.7bn) per year to around €8bn (£7.2bn) a year - but has only identified public and private funding sources for €4bn of the extra €5bn required, leaving a €1bn a year gap.

Commenting after the debate, Ms Hall said:

"If we fail to invest adequately in the energy technologies of the future, we will rapidly lose our European leadership in these areas. That would ultimately mean that thousands of jobs which could be created here in the North East will be lost to the US and China."

Ms Hall said that one option for closing the funding gap could be to adapt the Risk Sharing Finance Facility (RSFF) for use in support of the Strategic Energy Technology plan. The RSFF combines research money from the European Framework Programme with finance from the European Investment Bank.