Brussels, 03/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - In an interview published in the Wall Street Journal on 3 February, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton stated that the EU is preparing a large financial aid programme with the US for Ukraine. The EU and US are “developing a plan - a Ukrainian plan I've suggested they call it (…)- that looks at what we need to do in different parts of the economy right now to make things better”, she said. Without giving any exact figures, Ashton said that the “numbers won't be small” and she said that the aid will not only be monetary, mentioning the possibility of offering financial guarantees, aid for investment and support for the Ukrainian currency to ensure its stability. Ashton will return to Ukraine this week, although no precise date has yet been given. According to the chair of the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee, Elmar Brok (EPP, Germany), Ashton will be in Ukraine on 4 February.
Ashton's spokesperson, Maja Kocijancic, has confirmed that the EU is thinking about an aid plan with its partners, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), but has refused to give further detail. “We are trying to see what could be done”, she said. “The economic situation in Ukraine is very difficult and the EU is very committed to seeing what we can do in this context”, she said, adding that “this aid is linked to the reforms that are necessary for the Ukrainian economy”.
According to several diplomats, quoted by AFP, the aid is only at the ideas and preparatory stage. “It's a question of listing everything that the Europeans can put on the table, with the Americans, scraping funds from the coffers of European funds”, said one of the diplomats, adding that it will be difficult to reach the level of the Russian offer. The Russians have proposed $15 billion and a 30% cut in the price of gas - an offer that is currently on hold while waiting for the formation of a new Ukrainian government.
During the association agreement negotiations, the EU had proposed €610 million in financial aid to Ukraine. Having refused to sign the agreement, Ukraine calculated that the financial aid that it needed from the EU was €20 billion. European Commission President José Manuel Barroso underlined that, for a country in difficulty, which is confronting European challenges, “we can do something more”. He said that there are discussions under way with the aim of helping Ukraine on its European path.
Rather than sanctions, it is currently important to guarantee aid to Ukraine - including financial aid - said Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk. “We should be ready to propose financial aid”, Brok said on 3 February. Stating that Ukraine depends on Russia, Brok added that “we must use all possibilities, propose a short-term package, and for the long term, by involving the IMF, on condition that Ukraine has appropriate structures for proposing the reforms to its economy which [Ukraine's President Viktor] Yanukovych did not want to implement”. The co-chair of the Greens at the European Parliament, Rebecca Harms, also called on the EU and the IMF to help Ukraine financially in order for it to avoid bankruptcy, while Pawel Kowal MEP (ECR, Poland) proposed a Marshall Plan. In Kowal's view, the plan - based on an alliance between the EU, the US and the international institutions - should rest on two pillars. The first would be economic and social, and linked to the modernisation of industry, energy policy and common economic actions. The second would be oriented towards young people and civil society.
Füle puts forward idea of accession. For his part, Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Füle underlined, on 1 February, that accession to the EU can change the former Soviet bloc countries. “If we are serious about helping this part of Europe to transform, the association agreement is only the first step. The next one should be the light at the end of the tunnel. You can't transform this part of Europe without using this most powerful instrument” [the process of enlargement], Füle stated at the Munich conference on security. (CG/transl.fl)