Ukrainian Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko / Photo from UNIAN
Ukrainian Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko and Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine, Ambassador Jan Tombinski have discussed the 2nd EUR 600 million tranche of the European Union's Macro-Financial Assistance (MFA) III program.
"This Friday I met with the Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine, Ambassador Jan Tombinski. We discussed outstanding issues for Ukraine to receive the 2nd tranche of the EU MFA III program. Moreover, we touched upon potential EU technical assistance to Ukraine in 2016 in such important spheres as tax administration, decentralization, and civil service reform," Jaresko wrote on Facebook on Sunday, January 31.
Цієї п'ятниці зустрілася з головою представництва Євросоюзу в Україні Яном Томбінським. Обговорили кроки, які необхідно ...
Опубликовано Наталія Енн Яресько / Natalie Ann Jaresko 31 января 2016 г.
As UNIAN reported, the new Macro-Financial Assistance (MFA) programme for Ukraine amounts to a total of EUR 1.8 billion. The first tranche worth EUR 600 million was disbursed to Ukraine in July 2015.
Through this programme, the EU contributes to cover the urgent financing needs faced by Ukraine, while supporting the country's economic stabilization. In addition, the EU's MFA package will assist the Ukrainian authorities in implementing important reforms in the areas of public finance management, governance and transparency, the energy sector, social safety nets, the business environment and the financial sector.
By supporting the Ukrainian government's reform agenda in those areas, the EU intends to help Ukraine lay the ground for a durable return to economic growth.
Macro-financial assistance (MFA) operations are part of the EU's wider engagement with neighboring countries and are designed as an exceptional EU crisis response instrument available to EU neighboring countries experiencing severe balance of payments problems.
According to the EU, together with the previous two MFA operations (EUR 610 million was disbursed as part of the first MFA operation, while EUR 1 billion was released as part of the second programme for the country) and additional assistance being provided by the EU (the State-Building Contract of up to EUR 355 million in grants, new lending by the European Investment Bank of up to EUR 3 billion for 2014-2016, a Euratom loan of EUR 300 million, the EU SURE programme – EU Support to Re-launch the Economy – of up to EUR 55 million, the DCFTA Facility for SMEs and humanitarian assistance, among others), this constitutes the largest EU financial assistance package ever granted to a non-EU country in such a short time.