On Thursday 23 July, the European Commission and Ukraine signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for further EU macrofinancial assistance to Ukraine, this time of €1.2 billion over one year.
We continue to provide "political, technical and financial support" to Ukraine to enable it to build a more crisis-resilient economy, said Commission Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis. According to him, this aid, by far the largest by volume granted to the neighbourhood countries (see EUROPE 12472/7), testifies to the "common objective" of both parties to "bring Ukraine closer to the EU".
This macro-financial assistance is conditional on the implementation of reforms in the following areas: sound public finance management, respect for the rule of law, improvement of the business environment, governance of state-owned enterprises and increased competition in the energy market.
Mr Dombrovskis stressed the need to ensure the independence of the Ukrainian central bank and independent supervision of the country's banking groups. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal reported progress in this regard, with the appointment of a central bank governor who enjoys broad support in the country.
In Brussels, on his first trip out of his country, Mr Shmyhal renewed Ukraine's commitment to implementing the Minsk agreements aimed at ending the conflict with Russia. "We want peace, not war", he said.
Mr Shmyhal also called for a thorough analysis of the association agreement linking his country to the EU in order to eliminate " shortcomings". The aim is to better align the European and Ukrainian markets in areas such as conformity of goods, telecommunications regulation and Ukraine's involvement in the implementation of the European Green Deal.
In order to directly address the Covid-19 pandemic, the EU has provided €190 million in aid to Ukraine. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)