Would 'Brexit' decimate Welsh jobs and investment prospects?

19 May 2014

Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood appeared on BBC Breakfast this morning to make the case to Welsh voters for membership of the EU:

"1 in 10 jobs, £4 billion worth of investment is relying on us remaining a member of the EU."

We got in touch with Plaid Cymru who said the jobs figure comes from a Welsh Government estimate of 150,000 jobs in Wales relying on exports to EU member states.

The figure is consistent with research from 2000, which said around that number of jobs in Welsh constituencies were linked to exports to the EU. But the research doesn't mean that this number are dependent on EU membership - many of the companies exporting to the EU might continue to do so even if the UK wasn't a member, so it doesn't tell us how many of these jobs "depend" on the UK's continued membership of the EU. We've covered this in more detail in our Spotlight on jobs in the EU.

We've contacted the Welsh government to ask where they got their estimate from, and will update this piece accordingly when we get a response.

The £4 billion figure is comprised of €2.4 billion in 'structural' funding for social and economic development in Wales, and €2.6 billion from the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Together these schemes make up €5 billion, or £4 billion, of funding. Not all of this is necessarily 'investment' - £2.2 billion of the CAP money will go towards direct payments to farmers and market control measures.

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