EU to allocate Ukraine almost EUR 2 billion

Tuesday, January 27, 2015 - 17:41 (EET) Section: Latest news

The EU plans to allocate Ukraine EUR 1.8 billion in macro-financial assistance this year, but the possibility of increasing the loan amount is also considered.
This was discussed at a meeting of EU Economic and Financial Affairs Council on Tuesday, an Ukrinform correspondent in Brussels reported.
“The European Commission has launched a new program of macro-financial assistance to Ukraine worth EUR 1.8 billion. This is the amount that was asked by Ukrainian side. We are planning to allocate this resource and ask the EU Council to approve this decision. Regarding time frame, the assistance is planned to be allocated in the middle of this year, or even earlier, when we can provide the first part of this amount. We consider that it will be made in three tranches, EUR 600 million each,” said Vice-President of the European Commission for the Euro and Social Dialogue Valdis Dombrovskis.
He also said that Ukraine’s implementation of reforms and strengthening of governance are the requirements for the loan.
Latvian Finance Minister Janis Reirs, in turn, said that the issue of increasing assistance is currently discussed, and this decision is upheld by the member states.
“We are not talking about specific amount, but there is an agreement that we need to act quickly,” he said.