THE vice-president of the European Parliament has attacked Yorkshire's regional development agency for its "sad, rather soggy approach" to the promotion of exports.

Edward McMillan-Scott, MEP for Yorkshire & Humber, who became the fourth vice-president of the European Parliament after he was elected in 2004, hit out at Yorkshire Forward in an exclusive interview with the Evening Press.

He claimed Yorkshire's exports should be accurately measured, and that there should be more effective promotion.

He said: "At the moment we rely on Yorkshire Forward and I am not sure it is as effective as the French equivalent - the chambers of commerce.

"The French Chambers are private sector operations. They even own large parts of the commerce in a town or city and are usually highly effective.

"Here we have a very sad, rather soggy approach to this through Yorkshire Forward, with its endless strategy papers and forums and outreach and stakeholders."

But Yorkshire Forward and the separate UK Trade and Investment organization, which has an office at Yorkshire Forward in Leeds, both countered his arguments by pointing to expanding exports from the region.

Mr McMillan-Scott said: "Yorkshire Forward, in a way, suffers from being asked to do too many things by central Government, but in the end achieves very little.

"And what other countries have are highly-focused export agencies working in co-operation with individual industries or chambers of commerce."

He recalled the days when he was an MP and on the board of the then Yorkshire Development Agency "which had somebody in San Francisco, somebody in Tokyo, who actually had offices with people doing export stuff".

What was needed, he said, was "a systematic approach to exports across the range - between Government activity, regional activity and local.

"I have to say that the private sector, by and large, knows what it is doing better than the public sector, hence my whinge about Yorkshire Forward having a lot of people producing strategy reports about industries and sectors they know nothing about."

But Simon Hill, executive director of business development for Yorkshire Forward, said his agency worked closely with UK Trade and Investment, which was responsible for delivering regional support for exporters.

"The Regional International Trade Strategy, which gives a co-ordinated structure to business support for exporters, has been agreed in a partnership between Yorkshire Forward, UK Trade and Investment, Yorkshire and Humber Chambers of Commerce, and Business Links.

"The Targeted Export Support Scheme, which is funded by Yorkshire Forward and delivered by UK Trade and Investment, helps businesses to develop new markets through trade missions, marketing and promotion. Over the next three years it is expected to assist more than 2,000 businesses and create almost 800 jobs. "

Mark Robson, international trade director for UK Trade and Investment, said his was a focused agency with teams all over Europe and working closely with regional development agencies, chambers of commerce and Business Links, and the impact of its work was "pretty well documented".

He said: "We are looking to generate 300 more exporters across Yorkshire this year and to help 600 companies get into new markets."

Mr McMillan Scott also spoke of his continuing battle to win justice for Shepherd's Purse Cheeses in Thirsk which has until next year to rebrand its "Yorkshire Feta" cheese now that the Greeks have won claim to the feta title.

Updated: 10:36 Friday, February 17, 2006