EU Wants to Provide Ukraine with Financial Assistance, Coronavirus Vaccine

The European Union is working to ensure that Ukraine receives the second part of a macro-financial assistance tranche worth EUR 600 million as soon as possible, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said during a phone conversation with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky.

According to the website of the Head of Ukrainian State, Zelensky thanked the EU for allocating the first tranche of aid to Ukraine in December 2020.

“This helped maintain our macro-financial stability,” the President said.

The report also says that the parties discussed the efforts the Ukrainian authorities are making to implement anti-corruption reforms. Zelensky informed von der Leyen about the beginning of the reform of the Security Service of Ukraine, the establishment of the Bureau of Economic Security and the increased liability for inaccuracies in asset declarations.

During the phone conversation, special attention was paid to the issue of holding a regular meeting of the EU-Ukraine Association Council, which is scheduled for early February in Brussels. The Ukrainian side expects that during the event a dialogue will be launched to update the parameters of the free trade area and strengthen the sectoral provisions of the Association Agreement.

After a phone conversation, the President of the European Commission posted on her Twitter account that the EU wants to help Ukraine fight COVID-19. She stressed that both EU states and neighbouring countries will receive sufficient doses of the vaccine in 2021.

According to the President of Ukraine, the vaccines allocated within the COVAX Facility will not be enough to vaccinate the critically needed amount of population in 2021.

Bohdan Marusyak