EUROCRATS don't have a particularly good image in this country.

We tend to regard them as faceless, bureaucratic and ready to bind us up in red tape if we dare to ask for their help.

But Clare Evans, from Rhyader in Powys, wants to change all that.

Last year she joined Newport Council as European affairs manager.

She and her team are on a mission to put friendly faces on the European grant aid process and hold applicants' hands as they go through the form-filling process.

Clare said: "We want to be pro-active. If someone has a good idea we want them to write it down on one or two sides of A4 and get in touch with us.

"We will take a look at it and advise on whether there is scope for a grant application.

"If we think there is a reasonable case we will guide them through the process."

The Newport city area has access to two main sources of European funds.

The Objective 2 fund is the larger of them and is aimed mostly at capital projects to enhance both infrastructure and people.

Small and medium-sized businesses can apply as can community groups and other not-for-profit organisations.

The idea is to help protect jobs and create new ones by expanding existing businesses and starting new ones.

The theory is that by doing this the EU can achieve community regeneration.

Objective 3 funding is aimed primarily at people although equipment purchases of up to £1,000 are allowable.

Prime targets include the long-term unemployed, returnees such as mums, and those who have dodged or been abandoned by the system and never worked.

Within the business sector, funding is targeted at helping managers and workers to raise skill levels and in so doing raise overall productivity.

Objective 3 is also designed to help equalise opportunities for marginalised communities.

Objective 3 covers all areas of the city, Objective 2 focuses on "transitional" areas - basically those which have suffered economic knocks and are trying to regenerate themselves.

So, for example, Pill is a core Objective 2 area, while Allt-yr-Yn is not.Both programmes run until 2006.

Clare's team acts as the secretariat to the Newport European Partnership which is chaired by council leader Sir Harry Jones.

Comprising one-third public sector, one- third private and one-third voluntary, the goal is to provide greater transparency on how EU funds are being deployed within the community.

When a company or group makes an application, Clare's team will make an initial assessment.

If this proves positive the application will go on to the partnership's assessment group.

Assuming another stamp of approval here, the application goes to the Wales Economic Funding Office and from there the next stop is Brussels.

Applications can take anything from two and a half months to a year before the cash turns up.

Weak or failed bids can be returned to Clare's team and if they feel they can be resurrected they will help the applicant to do so.

They will also point the applicant in the direction of other funds which may be appropriate such as the Lottery Fund.

Since 2000 when the current arrangements were established, 40 grant bids have been endorsed, committing £2 million from Objective 2 and £1.5 million from Objective 3.

But these grants will all have been match-funded by up to 50 per cent, so the total value to recipients will be at least double - that's £7 million plus.

The idea of match-funding is a safety device to ensure implausible schemes are not dreamt up solely for the purpose of attracting EU funds.

They have to be sufficiently credible to attract 50 per cent of their cost from other sources. These sources can include the Community Fund, Heritage Lottery, Welsh Assembly, Charities Trust, Lloyds TSB Fund and the Laura Ashley Fund.

Successful recipients have included the Newport Credit Union - which offers local savers and borrowers better opportunities for saving and borrowing - and the local chapter of Western Spirit.

The latter is the brainchild of ex-Welsh serviceman Simon Weston and aims to increase a sense of citizenship and decision-making amongst young people.

If you think you have a plan worthy of support from Europe, give Clare and her team a call on 01633 232 281.