EU to Aid Ukraine with 1.2 bln to Overcome COVID-19

The European Union will provide macro-financial assistance to 10 neighbouring partner countries totaling € 3 billion. The funds are to help to mitigate the economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.

“These programs of macroeconomic support will be delivered on favourable terms based on the signed memorandums of understanding, which set out the specific commitments to the reforms’ implementation,” Valdis Dombrovskis, Vice President of the European Commission, who oversees the economic bloc, said.

Memorandums of understanding have already been agreed with Albania, Georgia, Jordan, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, Northern Macedonia and Ukraine. The negotiations are currently underway with two other countries – Bosnia and Herzegovina and Tunisia.

The funds delivery under these programmes depends on the fulfilment of the previous political conditions, including the respect for democratic principles, human rights and the rule of law.

Ukraine expects to receive the highest package of macroeconomic assistance from the European Union – € 1.2 billion. The set of political conditions for Ukraine covers a wide range of areas, including public finance management, administration strengthening and a law rule, judicial reform, competition in the gas market, the business climate improvement and state-owned enterprises management.

To recap, the decision to provide macro-financial assistance to 10 partner countries to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic impacts was proposed by the European Commission on 22 April and adopted by the European Parliament and the EU Council on 25 May 2020.

Bohdan Marusyak