In mid-August, the European Commission approved Memoranda of Understanding with eight enlargement and/or neighbourhood countries as part of a €3 billion macro-financial assistance programme with ten non-Member States that was implemented in response to the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic (see EUROPE 12472/7).
The Memoranda of Understanding with Albania (€180 million), Georgia (€150 million), Jordan (€700 million), Kosovo (€100 million), Moldova (€100 million), Montenegro (€60 million), North Macedonia (€160 million) (see EUROPE 12529/12) , and Ukraine (€1.2 billion) (see EUROPE 12534/26) were approved. These documents have already been signed with Kosovo, Moldova, North Macedonia, and Ukraine.
Negotiations are ongoing with Bosnia and Herzegovina and Tunisia.
Conceived as a special crisis-response instrument, macro-financial assistance is conditional on fulfilling political preconditions (democratic principles, human rights, and the rule of law) and on implementing structural reforms. Beneficiary countries must also benefit from an IMF financial assistance programme.
“As part of the EU’s global response to the coronavirus pandemic, we are working to help our neighbouring countries to cushion the worst of its economic impact” so as to “keep the entire region stable”, declared European Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis in a statement. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)