On Friday 11 February, the ambassadors of the Member States to the European Union (Coreper) approved, without debate or amendment, the Commission’s proposal to provide Ukraine with a sixth macro-financial assistance package worth €1.2 billion in loans to help the country cope with the economic and political risks it faces (see EUROPE 12881/15).
This aid will last for a year and will be disbursed in two tranches of €600 million, the first as soon as the EU Council and the European Parliament have formally adopted the draft decision establishing it. The European Parliament will take a position on Monday 14 February (see other news).
The disbursement of the first tranche is subject to the political precondition of respect for democracy and the rule of law in Ukraine and the satisfactory implementation of the $5 billion programme that Kiev signed with the IMF in 2020 and which has been extended until June 2022.
The second instalment will be paid upon satisfactory implementation by Ukraine of the conditional measures to be set out in a Memorandum of Understanding containing a timetable for their implementation. The Commission cites economic policy and financial conditions, emphasising structural reforms and sound public finances. Progress on reciprocal market opening, the development of fair and rules-based trade and other priorities in the EU’s external policy are also duly taken into account, according to the draft decision.
Conditional measures could also include reforms to strengthen the fight against corruption, the independence of the judiciary, the governance of state-owned enterprises and the energy sector, the Commission says.
See the draft decision: https://bit.ly/3BgUU9V (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)