Scottish Government: "We will work to unfreeze Highland funds"
The Scottish Government has insisted no money will be lost to the Highlands as a result of a blunder that has frozen millions of pounds of European Union funding.
North communities risk losing out on £5 million from the European Social Fund because of "technical issues".
The Commission today confirmed it has suspended payments from the pot.
The Scottish government said the problems arose due to some public bodies failing to comply with audit obligations.
But David Alston, the leader of the Liberal Democrats in Highland Council, said the government was to blame.
He said the council became aware of the problem two years ago.
"Because EU funding is complicated, the key thing is that the national body - in this case the Scottish Government - produce clear guidelines that everybody can follow," he said.
"They produced a set of guidelines people followed in the belief that if they did that they were complying with what Europe required.
"But Scottish Government then turned around and said ‘by the way, you can’t rely on our guidelines, they’re just an aide-memoir’."
A government spokesman said: “This is not correct, and Mr Alston should know better. Guidance is issued continuously and updated as Commission guidance emerges, issues are clarified and processes evolve and develop. Scottish Government EU funding officials are in constant dialogue with potential applicants assisting them with their applications and proposals to minimise uncertainty. European programmes have operated in this way for many years.”
He it was important to stress that no money will be lost to Scotland as a result of this process.
He said: "Current interruptions to programme payments were prompted by some public bodies failing to comply with their audit obligations, clearly this is unacceptable and is being addressed.
"Approvals for new programme payments are imminent but await final clearance by auditors. We are keen to ensure all processes fulfil EU regulations before we issue any approvals. Interruptions with European programme funding due to technical issues are not uncommon – about half of around the 400 programmes across the EU are interrupted or suspended at any one time."
