European Commission green-lights new macro-financial assistance for Ukraine

Ukrainian Finance Minister Oleksandr Danyliuk has announced that the European Commission has approved a new Macro-Financial Assistance (MFA) program for Ukraine.

"I welcome the decision to approve a new financial assistance program for Ukraine, which is an important step for supporting reforms in Ukraine and ensuring financial stability," the minister wrote on Facebook.

Since the outbreak of the crisis in Ukraine in early 2014, the European Commission has mobilized a total of EUR 3.4 billion in macro-financial assistance through three consecutive programs of low-interest loans. This represents the highest amount ever made available by the EU to a third partner. Out of these EUR 3.4 billion, 1.61 billion were disbursed in 2014 and 2015 under the first two MFA operations (MFA I and II).

Read alsoCoE approves Action Plan for Ukraine worth EUR 29.5 mlnIn April 2015, the EU decided to provide a third MFA program of up to EUR 1.8 billion to Ukraine (MFA III). The first tranche under this program (EUR 600 million) was disbursed to Ukraine on July 22, 2015, while the second tranche (also EUR 600 million) was disbursed on April 4, 2017.

On December 1, 2017, the European Commission announced that it was "not in a position to disburse the last tranche of the current MFA programme," stressing it was ready to "consider further Macro-Financial Assistance to Ukraine, provided reform momentum is stepped up."