On Wednesday 10 February, on the eve of an EU-Ukraine Association Council meeting, European Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis outlined the European Union’s initiatives to help Ukraine launch its anti-Covid-19 vaccination campaign in February.
Macroeconomic assistance programmes to Ukraine will be reoriented so that “€190 million” will be used to meet the country’s needs in its fight against the pandemic, Mr Dombrovskis said after a meeting with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. Under the COVAX Facility, “Ukraine will receive 117,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in February, and 2.2 to 3.7 million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine during the first half of the year”, he added.
And the Commission has asked Poland to resell 1.2 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Kiev, with EU bulk purchase contracts with producers allowing this to happen.
On Monday, the President of the European institution, Ursula von der Leyen, had asked the Member States to do this to help Ukraine. Kiev refuses to buy the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, but is waiting for the delivery of a Chinese vaccine.
Mr Dombrovskis was also concerned about “the impact of Russian disinformation on the vaccination process in Ukraine”.
Macroeconomic assistance. By the end of 2020, the European Union had disbursed a first tranche of €600 million to Kiev as part of a €1.2-billion macrofinancial assistance package to combat the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic (see EUROPE 12619/11).
Mr Dombrovskis recalled that the disbursement of the second tranche would depend on compliance with “crucial” reforms, for example in the judiciary and the fight against corruption.
Mr Shmyhal assured that his government would make progress in this “systemic” fight against corruption, including through customs sector reform. He also wished for greater independence for his country in terms of energy supply as well as privatisations.
Finally, the EU has said it is ready to start a revision of its trade agreement with Ukraine in 2021 to increase mutual market access. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)