EU to provide more than 500 mln euros of guarantees, grants and technical assistance for Ukraine through EBRD programs
MOSCOW. June 11 (Interfax) - The European Union will provide additional support of 517 million euros to four European Bank for Reconstruction and Development programs, as well as 143 million euros in loans for Ukrainian cities; Arvid Tuerkner, EBRD Managing Director for Ukraine and Moldova, and Valdis Dombrovskis, Vice-President of the European Commission, signed the relevant agreements during the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC2024) in Berlin on Tuesday.
Ukrainian media reported, quoting an EBRD press release, that the EU would provide a financial guarantee of 140 million euros for the EBRD's Financial Inclusion Recovery Program. It will also offer blending grants of 30 million euros and technical assistance of 7 million euros for the SME Competitiveness and Inclusion Program in Ukraine.
A further 150 million euros financial guarantee and 7.5 million euros of technical assistance go to the Hi-Bar guarantee program, which supports both new and existing climate mitigation technologies, in particular in the energy sector.
The EU will also make available a financial guarantee of 150 million euros, along with blending grants of 25 million euros and technical assistance of 7.5 million euros, for the EBRD's Municipal, Infrastructure and Industrial Resilience Program.
This additional EU funding is expected to be rapidly deployed; several EBRD agreements with Ukrainian beneficiaries have already been signed during the Ukraine Recovery Conference. The European Union's financial guarantees are provided under the Ukraine Investment Framework.
The agreements signed in Berlin include municipal loans to Nikolayev and Lutsk, as well as a pre-financing agreement for municipal lending to Kharkiv, Krivoi Rog, Zhitomir and Kyiv. The total volume of agreements with six municipalities is 143 million euros.
Also at the conference, memoranda of understanding were signed both with Ukrainian Railways and the Infrastructure Ministry for a potential 300 million euros project in which the EBRD would provide co-financing for the purchase of electric locomotives, and with the ministry to support the regional water sector.
These signings build on a long-standing commitment to both regional and municipal development in Ukraine, according to the bank's press release.
The EBRD is the biggest institutional investor in Ukraine. It has allocated more than 4.2 billion euros to Ukraine since 2022.