Revealed: How British taxpayers plunge £3million-a-year into EU propaganda fund... and get just £300,000 back.... Europe for Citizens fund is designed to encourage European Citizenship Britain will commit £18million to EU scheme over next six years But Brussels fund only gave UK organisations £300,000 this year It has been accused of only handing money to Europhile organisations Tory MP says fund has history of funding pro-EU propaganda He calls for scheme to be scrapped and money to be spent domestically EU says the scheme helps citizens to take part in discussions Britain is paying millions into a scheme branded an EU propaganda fund by MPs, MailOnline can reveal. UK taxpayers are committed to paying £18million into a controversial scheme called the Europe for Citizens programme over the next six years - despite it paying just £300,000 back to Britain this year. The fund - set up to nurture feelings of European Citizenship - has been criticised for handing out generous grants to pro-European groups in an apparent bid to strengthen its own power. But figures show that British organisations were handed just 2.5 per cent of the £10million the fund gave to schemes in other member states across the continent this year. A scheme run by the European Commission (pictured) is awarding British organisations just a tiny fraction of the money UK taxpayers put in to the scheme, dubbed an EU propaganda fund by some MPs The UK gets just a tiny fraction of the funding despite British taxpayers paying roughly 10 per cent of the schemes £185million six-year budget - contributing around £3million every year. The fund handed out £3.3million to 33 different organisations in European countries this year as part of its network of towns scheme - but not one British group was given money. By contrast, Italian organisations received eight separate grants totalling nearly £1million for schemes which organisers claim allow towns to work together in a common theme. Brussels bosses also handed out a further £2.2million to 188 local councils and organisations around Europe this summer for town twinning programmes - but no British schemes were given funding. Hungarian towns by contrast were given 41 separate grants, each of about 25,000 euros, while more than 15 Romanian towns were given money, along with 11 Italian projects. Tory MP Chris Heaton-Harris has called for the entire scheme to be scrapped so that Britain can spend the money it contributes domestically Only in the second tranche of funding, announced in September, did Britain finally get a share of the huge funding pot. Then, just two out of the 60 twinning projects given funding, those involving Cardiff and Aberdeen, were helped, receiving 12,500 euros (around £10,000). A further 10 Hungarian towns were given generous grants - meaning more than 50 organisations in that country alone cashed in. In total, British authorities have received just £10,000 of the £6.3million handed out by the twinning and network schemes, figures published on the EUs website reveal. The descriptions of the organisations given funding are often unclear on the programmes website. A Spanish plan which was handed around £100,000 boasts that its scheme will move towards European policies and best practices for supporting local governance multi-level application. Meanwhile, an Italian scheme which was given £120,000 claims it wants to create a European network of bio-districts to achieve a true territorial renaissance. In another strand of funding, around £2.6million was given to 30 Civil Society projects, which organisers claim gather citizens in activities directly linked to EU policies. In this area, only one British organisation, the charity Citizens UK, received any money and was given £120,000. Two British organisations were also given £80,000 grants as part of the £2.2million handed out for remembrance ceremonies and events during the centenary of the start of the First World War. Chris Heaton-Harris, who voiced fears that too much money was only going to pro-European organisations earlier this year, called for the fund to be scrapped. He told MailOnline: The vast majority of projects this money is being given to and the sort of people who are given money are people who produce EU propaganda. While only two British cities got money from the scheme, authorities in Hungary (whose capital Budapest is pictured) received more than 50 separate grants - most of which were between £10,000 and £15,000 He added: I didnt like the scheme in the first place. The only part of it that I do approve of is the part that gives money for holocaust and war remembrance. I think the whole Europe for Citizens programme should be canned and we should use the money domestically for for holocaust and World War remembrance. It comes after Brussels demanded a £1.7billion surcharge to the £11billion-a-year Britain already pays into the EU budget. The UK government later claimed the extra bill had been cut to £850million and would be paid in instalments next year. The European Commission has backed the scheme, insisting it contributes by developing citizens organisations capacity to engage citizens in the democratic life of the Union. A statement on their website states: Europe has a challenging agenda for the next seven years, with serious issues at stake. With decisions and policies needed on issues ranging from economic growth, security and Europe’s role in the world, it is now more important than ever for citizens to take part in discussions and help shape policies. Cardiff and Aberdeen (below) are the British towns or cities to get a small slice of a multi-million pound funding handed out around Europe for twinning schemes
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 14:30:28 +0000
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