Be in No doubt! - Wales and its people have an enormous lot to lose if the UK leave the EU

   Wales contributes far more to the EU than it gets back ‘’ says Boris. NOT TRUE!
     The Facts are -

·         Wales benefits from our membership more than any other part of the UK;

·         Wales is due to receive more than £3billion of EU investment between 2014 and 2020;

·         The European Investment Bank has invested £1.6bn in Welsh projects over the past 20 years; In the last five years Wales has benefited from 96 investment projects from the EU, creating or protecting 16,000 jobs,

·         Wales exported £5.8bn worth of goods to the EU in 2014 which was 43% of total goods exports

·         More than 190,000 jobs in Wales are linked to our European trade;

·       The tourism trade has benefited from investment in developments such as the coastal path, while European water directives have ensured cleaner waters and beaches around our coast. 130,000 people are employed in the tourism industry in Wales and EU tourists in Wales spent £206m in 2014, over half of all international visitor spend.

·      Welsh farmers will receive £1.7bn between now and 2020 and enjoy branding protection for Welsh beef and lamb;

·         Subsidies make the difference to many farmers between making a profit or loss. In Wales subsidies accounted for an average of 81% of farms’ business income in 2014-15 and over 50% of all farms made a loss or would have done so without a subsidy.

·         In Wales this amounted to £ 240m in 2014 in direct payments via the Single Payment Scheme and we are expecting to receive an additional £300m to help rural development from 2014 to 2020.

·         The agricultural sector in Wales is still significant with almost 58,000 people working directly in the industry.

·         The agri-food sector with food processing employs around 230,000 people or makes up for around 18% of the workforce and is worth around £6bn annually to the Welsh economy.

·         Ninety per cent of Welsh lamb is sold to the EU so an exit would have a huge impact on the market.

A recent study has revealed that the amount of money Wales received from the EU budget in 2014 totalled £658m, while Wales’ contribution to the EU (after accounting for a share of the UK’s rebate) stood at £414m. This net benefit of £245m was equal to around 0.4% of GDP in 2014.