European Union governments have approved the first official disbursement of around €4.2 billion to Ukraine under a €50 billion package of loans and grants to support the country’s reconstruction under the “EU Facility for Ukraine”.
The Council of the European Union said in a statement on its official website that its governments considered that Ukraine had met nine conditions in a set of reforms covering “public finance management, governance of state-owned enterprises, the business environment, energy and demining”. Kiev also made progress in “fighting corruption and money laundering”. It appointed a new head of the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption.
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The statement stressed the need to “allocate funds as soon as possible, given the difficult financial situation in Ukraine.”
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The agreement between the European Union and Ukraine, an official candidate to join the bloc, stipulates that the country will receive 50 billion euros in grants and loans between now and 2027 to help it recover from the paralysis of its economy in the wake of the Russian war in February 2022.
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In return, Ukraine must implement a series of reforms, which the EU estimates could increase GDP by 6.2 percent by 2027 and reduce its debt, which has been rising since the start of the war, by 10 percent by 2033.
