EU Referendum - European Funding In Wales

EBBW VALE, UNITED KINGDOM - MARCH 07: A European Union funding plaque is displayed on a monument in Ebbw Vale on March 7, 2016 in Blaenau Gwent, Wales. The West Wales and the Valleys region, which covers 15 local authority areas, has been identified as the poorest region in the whole of north Western Europe, with large swathes of Wales poorer than parts of Bulgaria, Romania and Poland and four-and-a-half times less prosperous than central London, highlighting the fact that the UK now has Europe's highest inequality of wealth within the European Union. To address this, from 2014 to 2020, Wales will benefit from around £1.8bn EU European Structural Funds investment which comprises funding from two separate European Structural Funds: the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the European Social Fund (ESF). The ERDF funds are used for a range of things including urban development, research and innovation, competitiveness, use of renewable energy and energy efficiency, connectivity and urban development. The ESF funds are to be directed to tackling poverty through more sustainable employment, increasing skills and tackling youth unemployment in the region. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)