- guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 13 March 2001 18.11 GMT
Gordon Brown, the chancellor, yesterday launched his second attack upon the Brussels bureaucracy in as many months accusing the European commission of dragging its feet over a crucial aid package to the regions worth £1bn.
Mr Brown condemned the commission for "unjustified" delays in approving his so-called venture capital funds for Britain's regions.
His comments came after meeting the commissioner in charge of the approval process, Mario Monti, to voice his concerns. "I have left him in no doubt that the delays being experienced for getting permission for the new venture capital funds are unjustified and it is very important that we get a decision on this very quickly."
But the commission yesterday rejected his accusations. "It has to be a transparent procedure," a commission spokesperson said. "We need to respect procedures, translate it into 11 languages and wait for people to comment. In this case we have done all of this extremely rapidly."
