Ukraine expects to get first 4.5 bln euros from EU's new support package in March - first deputy PM

MOSCOW. Feb 1 (Interfax) - Ukraine expects to receive from the European Union a first tranche amounting to 4.5 billion euros in March under the 50-billion-euro Ukraine Facility support package approved by the European Council on Thursday, First Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Yulia Sviridenko said.

"The government is currently working on an agreement on transition financing together with our European partners," Sviridenko wrote on social media.

After the European Council approved the package on Thursday, it is supposed to finalize its terms and conditions with the European Commission and the European Parliament, after which the European Parliament should endorse it at a plenary session on February 26-29, Sviridenko said.

The program is based on a model used by the EU to finance its members, and while Ukraine Facility was being prepared, Ukraine worked on its own plan for implementing it, she said.

"When the European Parliament endorses the procedure, we'll take its final terms and conditions into consideration in our plan. We've continued our consultations with European partners since the start of the work on the document, and we'll finalize it together in line with the program adopted," she said.

After its approval by the Ukrainian government, the plan will be passed to the European Commission for consideration, and the EU's final approval would give the program the green light, she said.

"Certainly, there's still a lot of work ahead, as we will have to implement the plan's benchmarks to receive the funding on a quarterly basis. What we can see for sure today is that we're now a step closer to economic sustainability over the next four years. But what is the most important is that we're now a step closer to the European family," she said.

Ukraine expects to receive 18 billion euros under Ukraine Facility to finance its 2024 budget. The 50-billion-euro package is designed for 2024-2027, including 39 billion euros for financing Ukraine's budget.

The Ukrainian Finance Ministry has estimated the 2024 state budget's need for foreign financing at $37 billion.