Council Adopts Additional €5 Billion Assistance To Ukraine

The Council formally adopted Thursday the decision to provide € 5 billion of additional macro-financial assistance (MFA) to Ukraine, as a matter of urgency.

On 9 September, EU ministers for finance had agreed a statement in support of these additional €5 billion assistance for Ukraine at the informal Ecofin Council meeting in Prague. This additional assistance was formally adopted, after the necessary formal steps were completed within just 11 days.

This financial assistance complements other EU support to Ukraine in the humanitarian, development, customs and defence fields.

“The European Union stands by Ukraine. We deliver on our promises and help ensure that the Ukrainian state and its key infrastructure can continue to function despite Russia’s war of aggression. At the next Ecofin meetings, I will push for a swift agreement on the provision of the remaining €3 billion, for which we must also agree on the division of this amount into loans and grants,” said Zbyněk Stanjura, Minister of Finance of Czechia

This €5 billion macro-financial assistance will be provided to Ukraine in the form of highly concessional long-term loans. It constitutes the second stage in the implementation of the planned full Union’s exceptional macro-financial assistance to Ukraine for up to €9 billion, announced by the European Commission in its communication of 18 May 2022 and endorsed by the European Council on 23-24 June 2022.

In addition, the decision adopted today equips the EU budget with the means to absorb the risk of losses on these additional loans as well as on the €1 billion loan adopted on 12 July 2022. The latter was fully disbursed in two tranches on 1 and 2 August 2022.

This new MFA operation is part of the extraordinary international effort by bilateral donors and international financial institutions to support Ukraine at this critical juncture.

This decision should be followed swiftly by the adoption of a further decision implementing the third stage of the planned full Union’s exceptional macro-financial assistance for a further amount of up to €3 billion, once the design of that assistance has been determined.