A LEADING Liverpool councillor is to lead a bid to attract another £600m of European cash to Merseyside and push ahead with an “Irish Sea business zone”.

Cllr Flo Clucas will be commissioned by the European Union to draw up a report on whether areas such as Merseyside should continue to receive European funding.

She said she would be pushing for the city region to continue to receive funding in the wake of the scrapping of the regional development agency, the NWDA, which managed the city’s European bids.

Part of her report is likely to focus on how to capitalise on wind and tidal power in the Irish Sea, as well as formalising trade links with the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

But while city leaders welcomed the prospect of more European funding, they said they were sceptical about whether or not Cllr Flucas could convince the European Commission to commit the cash.

Lib-Dem Cllr Clucas, who recently returned from Dresden, in Germany, where she delivered a keynote speech on the need for money to continue work funded by the EU, was proposed to write the report by the Socialist and Conservative groups on the European Parliament.

She said: “It’s not that I want us to be dependent on European funding, but there’s work to be finished here. I will be pushing that in the report, so that should mean we can get another £500m or £600m.

“We need greater connections with Europe, but not just physical connections like rail, but broadband connections right across Europe.

“It’s not something businesses can just do for themselves, it requires assistance.

“I want us to have formal links across the Irish Sea, to have an ‘Irish Sea’ region and look at how we can sensibly and properly exploit what the sea can do for us.”