THE North-East may have cost itself its say in how European Union cash is doled out by voting against an elected regional assembly, delegates were warned yesterday.

Graham Meadows, director general of regional policy at the European Commission, said the Government was looking at plans to distribute EU cash from London, rather than through the North-East.

He said the EU was due to meet next month to discuss its budget for regional policy - schemes which lead to grants for the region's businesses.

And he said the region had missed out on being able to distribute its cash more evenly, with the north of the region getting more than the south.

"London is wondering whether to continue this approach, that North-East policy is done in the North-East," he said. "They are thinking about programmes set up in London, run by London, designed in London for innovation and technology transfer in the North-East.

"They will do this through the narrow partnership of regional development agencies, rather than the wider partnership we have at the moment.

"As a region, we have always been seen by Brussels as being at the leading edge."

But, he said, by voting against an elected regional assembly, the region may have stopped the future right to distribute its own EU grants.

Mr Meadows said there were two pictures in the region - the vibrant regeneration of Newcastle, and the neglected former pit villages.

He said Wales was a similar picture to the North-East after the pit closures, but Wales had redefined how money was given out in 2000.

The result was that Wales gets 2.5 times more EU cash than the North-East, despite having a smaller population. Wales gets 1.9 billion euros a year, while the North-East gets £700m.

"It is a shame the same re-defining was not done for the North-East," Mr Meadows said. "If it had been, the north of the region would still have got money from the EU, but the southern part of the region would have got more.

"The difference now is that Wales can carry on its current system of policy because Wales voted to run its own show. The North-East may have missed out on that."