ED tape is thwarting Gwent businesses in their bids to secure European funding, a top business leader claims.

The opportunity for investment and the creation of new jobs could be lost as businesses fail to meet the criteria laid down for the Objective 2 and Objective 3 funds.

The influential South Wales Chambers Group says it is "concerned" over what it calls the "difficulties" facing businesses submitting applications for the European money.

And the group, which represents Newport & Gwent, Cardiff and West Wales chambers of commerce says business are being discouraged from applying due to the intricacies of the current system.

David Russ, (pictured) Newport & Gwent chamber of commerce chief executive and spokesman for the group said: "Projects submitted for Objective 3 funding are having to meet an extremely high quality threshold and many applicants are falling at the very first hurdle. "Having to re-write applications until the required standards are met means businesses are spending vast amounts of time making largely cosmetic changes.

"Poor success rates are deterring potential applicants and the application and assessment process for the Objective 3 programme must be reviewed as should the scoring system."

Mr Russ said: "There are many good practice examples with the Objective 2 programme and bringing objective 3 in line with this would make the application process less complex, especially for smaller businesses.

"The appeals process also needs to be revised to make the grounds for appeal more explicit and easily assessed."

Nigel Smith, European officer at Newport county borough council, said: "The process of accessing European funding allocated to the local areas has posed difficulties for a number of organisations seeking grant assistance.

"This is, in part, due to the new method of accessing European objective 2 and 3 funding - local partnerships being responsible for the development of local action plans for the use of the funds in the area and assessing applications submitted against the action plan."

Mr Smith said workshops are arranged to explain the whole process and provide guidance.

He said: "Due to European regulations the funding streams and the rules surrounding their use are complicated and must be followed no matter who the applicant body is. To date the Newport Partnership Board has received 38 applications and has supported eight."