EU Council approves new tranche of financial aid for Ukraine amounting to 5-bln euro
MOSCOW. Sept 20 (Interfax) - The Council of the European Union on Tuesday made a decision to grant Ukraine a second tranche of its macro-financial assistance (MFA), in the amount of 5 billion euros, the Council's press service stated.
"On 9 September, EU finance ministers agreed a statement in support of an additional 5 billion euro in assistance for Ukraine at the informal Ecofin Council meeting in Prague. Today, this additional assistance was formally adopted, after the necessary formal steps were completed within just 11 days," the statement said.
The 5 billion euro in aid will be provided in the form of "highly concessional long-term" loans, it said. The decision will come into force upon publication in the Official Journal of the EU.
Next, there should follow a decision on a third tranche of aid, amounting to 3 billion euros.
Zbynek Stanjura, the finance minister of Czech Republic, which currently holds the EU presidency, said that at the next meeting of EU finance ministers, he would seek to secure an agreement to grant 3 billion euros in aid to Ukraine.
"We must also agree on the division of this amount into loans and grants," Stanjura was quoted in the statement as saying.
Money for the second tranche could be allocated in mid-October, European Council (EC) President Ursula von der Leyen said earlier. Meanwhile, Ukraine, as its Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said, expected to receive the second tranche in the form of a loan by the end of September and the last one, in the form of a 3-billion euro grant, in October.
On September 15, the European Parliament approved the EC proposal to allocate 5 billion euros for Ukraine as a second tranche of the new 9 billion euro MFA.
In July, the EU approved the disbursement of one billion euros as a first tranche of the new MFA for Ukraine. The money arrived in the country in early August.
This is already the seventh EU MFA program. The final tranche under the previous, sixth program totaling 1.2 billion euros was received by Kyiv in May.
