The European Commission paid EUR 300 million to Ukraine today as part of the Emergency Macro-Financial Assistance (MFA), the Commission said. The disbursement of funds has been accelerated to help strengthen Ukraine’s macroeconomic stability in the context of Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified invasion.
This is the initial portion of the first 600 million tranche of the new 1.2 billion euro emergency macro-financial assistance program in Ukraine. Another disbursement of 300 million euro is expected next week, it was announced
The disbursement follows the swift adoption by the Council and the European Parliament of the Commission’s proposal for a new crisis program. The remaining funds (EUR 600 million) will be disbursed later this year, in line with the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the EU and Ukraine.
In parallel with the implementation of the MFA emergency program, the Commission is preparing an additional MFA program to continue supporting Ukraine in the longer term, as announced by President von der Leyen in late January.
The EU has provided Ukraine with considerable aid in recent years. Since 2014, the EU and European financial institutions have provided over EUR 17 billion to support the Ukrainian economy in the form of grants and loans.
This amount includes the provision of € 5.6 billion to Ukraine under five MFA programs to support the implementation of a broad reform agenda in areas such as the fight against corruption, an independent judiciary, the rule of law and improving the business climate.
Under the most recent macro-financial assistance program for Ukraine, the EU disbursed EUR 1.2 billion. The program ended in 2021, when Ukraine implemented all the conditions agreed in the Memorandum of Understanding on public financial management, governance and the rule of law, and improving the business climate.
At the same time, the Commission is working on various forms of emergency support. They range from humanitarian aid to civil protection aid.
On 1 March, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced at least EUR 500 million of additional EU funding for measures to respond to the humanitarian consequences of the crisis.
Macro-financial assistance (MFA) operations are part of the broader EU involvement in neighboring countries and are intended to be a unique EU crisis response instrument. They are available to EU neighbors that are facing serious balance of payments problems.
In January 2022, the Commission proposed to increase financial support to Ukraine through a new emergency aid package of up to € 1.2 billion. In addition, the EU is ready to continue investing in Ukraine’s future through our Economic and Investment Plan, which aims to leverage up to € 6.5 billion in investment in the coming years
Source: EC and ISBnews
