Scottish Labour calls for emergency summit over unspent EU funds

The party’s finance spokesman Michael Marra accused the SNP of ‘mismanagement’ (Jane Barlow/PA)

Scottish Labour is calling for an emergency summit with the Scottish Government to discuss unspent EU structural funds.

Earlier this month, Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes told MSPs the Government would spend as much of the money as possible by the time the scheme ended in 2025.

She said she did not expect Scotland’s figures to be markedly different from the rest of the UK’s.

A report by the independent Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) said the Government was initially allocated 941 million euros (£801 million), but the figure now stood at 783.4 million euros (£667 million) following a reduction of 157.6 million (£134 million) because annual expenditure targets set by the European Commission were missed.

Labour’s finance spokesman Michael Marra has written to Ms Forbes saying her previous response to MSPs was “muddled”.

Mr Marra said: “Scotland has already lost out on hundreds of millions of pounds of vital funding purely because of SNP mismanagement.

“In a matter of days, we will lose out on potentially hundreds of millions more – but the Government has shown no urgency fixing the problem.

“We need an emergency summit to agree a plan to stop this money being handed back at a time when public finances are so severely overstretched.

“From this farce to their shambolic manifesto, the SNP’s incompetence is threatening household finances and public finances alike.

“The SNP cannot keep playing fast and loose with public money and with people’s livelihoods.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “As the Deputy First Minister explained in parliament, all projects supported by European Structural Funds were completed by December 2023.

“The focus is now on maximising reimbursements to the Scottish Government. The Deputy First Minister will report the final figures and outcomes once the programme has formally closed.

“Until the European Commission’s approval and audit procedures have been completed, it is not possible to establish Scotland’s final use of the funds.”