On Friday 1 April, the European Commission presented a proposal for a recommendation to allow refugees who have fled Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and are enjoying temporary protection in the European Union to benefit from the same conditions for exchanging their hryvnias into the currency of their host country.
The proposal for a recommendation suggests that those Member States that so wish should set up national schemes allowing, free of charge and at the rate set by the National Bank of Ukraine, the exchange of hryvnias in a network of participating banks.
These three-month-long national schemes would allow each person to convert up to 10,000 hryvnias (a little over €300, based on the exchange rate on 1 April) into the host country’s currency.
The networks of participating banks would be responsible for registering the identity of persons using a national scheme in order to ensure the maximum limit is respected.
The proposed recommendation will be discussed at the Ecofin Council on Tuesday 5 April in Luxembourg with a view to a rapid adoption.
In mid-March, ECB President Christine Lagarde raised the possibility of setting up currency agreements (‘swap’ and ‘repo lines’) with the Ukrainian central bank to facilitate the conversion of the Ukrainian currency into euros (see EUROPE 12909/8).
At the start of the Russian invasion, the National Bank of Ukraine suspended the exchange of the hryvnia to protect its foreign currency reserves. For fear of exchange rate risk, banks in EU countries had become reluctant to buy hryvnias.
See the recommendation: https://aeur.eu/f/12k (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)