EU has finally approved Ukraine's plan for implementation of Ukraine Facility - Prime Minister Shmygal
MOSCOW. May 14 (Interfax) - The European Union has finally approved the plan developed by the government of Ukraine for the restoration, reconstruction and modernization of the country, a prerequisite for the implementation of the Ukraine Facility mechanism in the amount of 50 billion euro.
"The approval of the plan allows us to fully launch the Ukraine Facility. Our state will receive 1.89 billion euro in preliminary funding. In general, this year we expect to attract 16 billion euro as part of the program. This will strengthen our financial stability," Ukrainian media reported, citing a statement from Prime Minister of Ukraine Denis Shmygal on his Telegram channel.
The Prime Minister also thanked Belgium, which holds the presidency of the EU Council, and the EU member states for their high assessment of Ukraine's plan.
The EU Economic and Financial Affairs Council approved the plan. The plan is necessary for the regular allocation of funding to Kiev within the Ukraine Facility framework, the EU Council said.
The European Commission approved the plan in mid-April.
The approval of Ukraine's plan by the EU Council on Economic and Financial Affairs on Tuesday means that the Ukrainian state budget will receive 1.9 billion euro in the near future, the Ukrainian Finance Ministry said.
"Therefore, the procedure for launching direct budget support within the first component of the Ukraine Facility is almost complete. In the near future, Ukraine will receive 1.9 billion euro of unconditional funding," the Finance Ministry said in a press release.
The Ministry said that Ukraine would receive the rest of the budget support quarterly after meeting the indicators provided for in the plan. Financial assistance from the EU in 2024 is expected to amount to 16 billion euro in total, of which 3 billion is in the form of grants. In March-April, the state budget already received two tranches of transition financing in the amount of 6 billion euro.
Ukraine's Finance Ministry is responsible for three areas of the plan: public financial management, anti-money laundering and financial markets. The Ministry is also a co-executor in the sections covering management of public assets, human capital, the business environment, decentralization and regional policy, transport, the agri-food sector, and management of critical materials.
The budget of the Ukraine Facility will be formulated in the amount of 33 billion euro in loans and 17 billion euro in the form of grants. Of the total amount, 38.27 billion euro will be allocated to support the budget, 6.97 billion euro will go to the investment fund, and 4.76 billion euro will be for technical and administrative support.
Based on information from the Ministry of Finance website, since the start of the military operation in the country, the budget of Ukraine has received $85.35 billion in external funding, including $31.1 billion (of which grants were $14.23 billion) in 2022, $42.48 billion ($11.62 billion in grants) in 2023 and $11.78 billion ($1.02 billion in grants) this year.
Funding from the EU during this period totaled $33.98 billion (grants - $0.7 billion), including $6.48 billion this year.
