EU/HMG/BDUK Broadband mud slinging
According to the FT, the EU has got a little annoyed about being 'blamed' for the delay in approving the UK state aid bid for broadband projects. According to the EU THEY asked for figures from HMG in February when the fabulous Jeremy *unt was in charge of DCMS, but it was not until October when Maria Miller had replaced him at DCMS that the figures were provided.
To quote the FT
"Joaquín Almunia, the EU’s competition commissioner, said “Brussels bureaucrats worked faster than their London colleagues” in clearing the way for state aid to hasten investment in high-speed internet services for rural areas.
His comments came as Ms Miller was singled out for criticism by other ministers in an acrimonious cabinet meeting on Tuesday when the prime minister tackled several departments over the government’s faltering economic growth efforts.
Expansion of superfast broadband to rural areas [/URL]is a key part of government efforts to increase investment in infrastructure and its push to make Britain the most advanced digital economy in Europe. But the rollout was delayed by a long wait for approval from Brussels for the government to pump £530m of state funds into the project. The green light was finally secured earlier this month.
Aides said Ms Miller responded to criticism in Tuesday’s cabinet meeting by highlighting “her intervention in Brussels” to bring “the rural broadband programme out from under stifling EU bureaucracy”.
Mr Almunia denied that Brussels foot-dragging was to blame. “Politicians on both sides of the Channel must avoid red tape, but the real origin of the delays ... should also be made clear,” he told the Financial Times. “We asked the UK government last February to supply the necessary information to us and only received a complete answer in October.”
A Whitehall aide said Ms Miller deserved credit for breaking the impasse since succeeding Jeremy Hunt as culture secretary in the September reshuffle. “Those that sit in the cabinet should be wary of criticising someone who is acknowledged as making significant headway on a vitally important infrastructure project, particularly when some of her male counterparts cannot make the same claims,” the aide said.
Ms Miller had “achieved more on broadband in the last two months ... than over the last two years”, the aide added."
Looks like a good hand-bagging for Jeremy and CMD!