EU leaders are expected to underline their support for Ukraine at their summit on 30-31 May and have reiterated their call on Russia to stop its indiscriminate attacks on civilians.
“The EU and its Member States will do everything they can to continue to provide humanitarian, financial, military, material, economic and political support to Ukraine”, they said, according to a draft of the Secretariat-General’s conclusions to the Member States, dated 19 May.
The EU remains committed to helping the Ukrainian government meet its immediate liquidity needs and to supporting Ukraine’s reconstruction, the draft says. The leaders could also - the sentence is still under negotiation - underline that the EU “is ready to grant Ukraine new exceptional macro-financial assistance in 2022, underlining the need to reinforce the Common Provisioning Fund”. The European Commission proposed on 18 May exceptional macro-financial assistance of up to €9 billion (see EUROPE 12955/2).
The European Council could also endorse the European Commission’s idea of a reconstruction platform for Ukraine, calling for it to be set up and supported by a new EU solidarity instrument combining EU and Member States’ contributions. The European Commission has proposed a Facility.
Leaders are also expected to welcome efforts to provide for appropriate confiscation measures, including consideration of options to use frozen Russian assets to support the reconstruction of Ukraine. While a European Commission proposal on adding evasion or violation of sanctions to the areas of crime referred to in Article 83(1) TFEU (particularly serious crime with a cross-border dimension) could be presented on Wednesday 25 May, the European Council could, if so, ask the EU Council to move forward on this proposal, adding that it “welcomes the active consideration of other options”.
Finally, returning to the impact of the war on food security, the European Council is expected to promise to intensify EU efforts to facilitate Ukraine’s agricultural exports and to support the Ukrainian agricultural sector in the run-up to the 2022 season. The EU Council should invite Member States to implement the measures presented by the European Commission on solidarity lanes and to facilitate food exports from Ukraine by different land routes, including to the Baltic Sea.
See the draft conclusions: https://aeur.eu/f/1QZ (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)