Mr. Tony Murphy:

For us, the worst thing we hear is that people are either put off applying for EU funds or they just do not bother because it is so complicated. We do not set the rules. We try to encourage simplification of the rules. We do not set the budgets either in terms of projects for whatever the amounts available are. These are envelopes that are given to member states. Generally, then the member states decide on what they want to do with their envelope and how much will go to this programme and how much will go to that. They agree that with the Commission based on operational programmes or whatever. The member states still have quite a big role in determining the split of where its funding will go when it is negotiating with the Commission.