European Commission Approves $550Mln Loan To Ukraine As Part Of MFA Program

European Commission Approves $550Mln Loan to Ukraine as Part of MFA Program

The European Commission said on Friday in a press release that it approved a loan worth 500 million euros ($557 million) to Ukraine as part of its fourth macro-financial assistance (MFA) program, which is the largest amount of money the EU has ever allocated to a single partner country

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th May, 2020) The European Commission said on Friday in a press release that it approved a loan worth 500 million Euros ($557 million) to Ukraine as part of its fourth macro-financial assistance (MFA) program, which is the largest amount of money the EU has ever allocated to a single partner country.

"The European Commission, on behalf of the EU, has approved the disbursement of a 500 million loan to Ukraine as part of its fourth macro-financial assistance (MFA) programme. With this disbursement, the EU has now provided Ukraine with 3.8 billion in MFA loans since 2014. This is the largest amount of MFA the EU has disbursed to any single partner country," the press release said.

According to Executive Vice-President for an Economy that Works for People Valdis Dombrovskis, who is also responsible for the MFA program, Kiev has already achieved necessary reform benchmarks under the fourth assistance program, therefore, the bloc is preparing the 500 million euros worth disbursement. In addition, the EU will allocate another 1.2 billion euros to Ukraine to help cope with the coronavirus pandemic, Dombrovskis said, as quoted in the press release.

"The disbursement of the second and last tranche of the MFA operation has become possible after Ukraine has implemented twelve policy actions agreed with the EU. They included important measures in the fields of fight against corruption and money laundering, public finance management, banking sector, energy, healthcare and social policies. Ukraine is also finalising a new Stand-by Agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and has implemented the associated prior actions," the commission added.

In March 2018, Ukraine requested financial assistance from the bloc to complete its domestic reforms. In response, the commission proposed a new MFA program, the fourth since 2014, for up to 1 billion euros. The first loan under the fourth MFA program was released to Ukraine in December 2018, after Kiev fulfilled the associated policy conditions.

In general, from 2014 to 2017, Ukraine received a total of 2.8 billion euros worth of EU MFA loans. In addition to that, the bloc assists Kiev through several other instruments, including technical assistance, humanitarian aid, budget support and financial instruments to support investment in infrastructure and small and medium businesses.