The North West Regional Assembly says a "legacy of underinvestment" could be altered if the government enables a new mechanism for distributing EU Cohesion Funds.
1.2 billion euro has been made available under the EU Cohesion Fund for the period of 2021 to 2027.
350 million euro will be allocated for the Northern and Western region, and a new campaign by the NWRA called "Let's Be More" seeks to give local bodies more control on how these funds are spent.
The European Commission has recently downgraded the North West from a "developed" to a "transition region", and this allows the North West to access a 60% co-financing rate from an instrument called the Integrated Territorial Investment.
The NWRA's CEO, David Minton, spoke on The Wider View about how the scheme would work:
