The European Commission disbursed EUR 600 million to Ukraine on Wednesday, 22 July, under a new Macro-Financial Assistance program, the Interfax Ukraine news agency reports, citing the EU Delegation to Ukraine.
"The European Commission, on behalf of the EU, today disbursed a loan of EUR 600 million to Ukraine. This corresponds to the first installment under the new Macro-Financial Assistance (MFA) program for Ukraine," the European Commission said in a statement.
According to the statement, funds from this program is intended to cover the urgent financing needs faced by Ukraine, while supporting the country's economic stabilization and assisting the Ukrainian authorities in implementing important reforms in the areas of public finance management, governance, and transparency.
European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs Pierre Moscovici said that the EUR 600 million in macro-financial assistance disbursed on Wednesday added to the EUR 1.6 billion already provided by the European Union since the beginning of the crisis in Ukraine.
“In addition, the commission envisages disbursing another EUR 1.2 billion in the coming months subject to successful implementation of the economic and structural reforms agreed between the EU and Ukraine,” Moscovici added.
The EU approved the first macro-financial assistance program of EUR 610 million for Ukraine in spring 2014, disbursing it to the country in three tranches from May 2014 to April 2015.
The EU approved a second similar program worth EUR 1 billion for Ukraine last year, disbursing two equal tranches of EUR 500 million on 17 June and 3 December.
