Europarl committee backs European Commission's proposal to give 35 bln euro loan to Ukraine
BRUSSELS. Oct 14 (Interfax) - The Trade Committee of the European Parliament has supported the European Commission's proposal to provide Ukraine with a loan of up to 35 billion euros as the European Union's contribution to the G7 macro-financial assistance project.
"The Trade Committee voted by 31 in favor, 4 against and no abstentions on the Commission proposal to support Ukraine with an exceptional Macro-Financial Assistance (MFA) loan of up to €35 billion," the European Parliament said in a communique on Monday.
This is the EU's contribution under the G7's initiative to support Ukraine with up to $50 billion (approximately 45 billion euros) to address Ukraine's urgent financing needs, it said.
"The repayment of this exceptional MFA loan and of the loans from other G7 countries will come from the extraordinary revenues made from immobilized Russian Central Bank assets, and enabled by the Ukraine Loan Cooperation Mechanism, newly established under the Commission's proposal," it said.
Revenues from immobilized Russian assets "will only be used for servicing and repaying eligible loans and the MFA loan," the communique said.
"The new MFA loan is undesignated, allowing Ukraine to allocate the funds as it deems appropriate," it said, adding that the funds will be disbursed until the end of 2025.
The European Parliament is expected to vote on the proposal during its session in Strasbourg on October 21-24.
The European Commission published a document on September 20, clarifying that the EU's macro-financial assistance of up to 35 billion euros to Ukraine as part of the G7's loans of up to 45 billion euros will be repaid over a maximum period of 40 years.
"The funds will be provided through a highly concessional loan, to be made available possibly still in 2024 with disbursement in regular tranches going up to the end of 2025" the document said. The European Commission "has proposed to establish a Ukraine Loan Cooperation Mechanism which will support G7 partners and the Union in issuing loans of up to 45 billion euros to Ukraine," it said.
On the same day, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen confirmed on the occasion of her visit to Kiev that the EU would provide a loan of 35 billion euros to Ukraine.