IMF Delegation Arrives for Review – $917.5 Million on the Line

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission is starting its seventh review of the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program, which, if passed, will provide Ukraine with a tranche of $917.54 million.

Negotiations started in Kyiv on Thursday, Feb. 20, Radio Free Liberty reported, referencing IMF Resident Representative in Ukraine, Priscilla Toffano.

“The IMF mission, led by Gavin Gray, is starting discussions in Kyiv today with Ukrainian authorities,” Toffano is quoted. 

According to the IMF press service, so far, total disbursements under the program have been $9.8 billion. 

In the last review, Ukraine had failed to complete benchmarks related to rule of law and courts. 

One of the benchmarks includes amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code, enabling the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office to oversee extradition requests and mutual legal assistance between countries. 

The benchmarks also include changing procedures in pre-trial investigation deadlines (particularly in corruption cases). Ukraine so far has no deadline that enables it to finish the pre-trial process, making it a lever to put pressure on businesses. 

Activists say having deadlines on a pre-trial investigation made corrupt individuals stall for time and evade punishment as soon as the pre-trial investigation deadlines expired, causing the case against them to be closed, Yurydychna Praktyka wrote. 

Other Topics of Interest

Hungary Says It Has Deal With Ukraine on Minority Rights, Ties It to EU Accession Talks

Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar announced that Hungary and Ukraine have reached a “comprehensive agreement” to broaden language, cultural, educational and political rights for roughly 100,000 ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine’s Zakarpattia region, following several weeks of expert-level talks. Kyiv has pledged to write the agreed measures into Ukrainian law, reflecting them in the EU accession action plan. Budapest indicated it would support opening the first negotiating cluster for Ukraine.

But having no deadline in pre-trial investigations also triggers lawsuits against Ukraine in the European Court of Human Rights, the media outlet wrote. As a result of these lawsuits, Ukraine is obliged to pay compensation in thousands of dollars. 

The second draft law required to pass the IMF review proposes the establishment of a new court to handle administrative cases against national government bodies with judges who have undergone proper professional and integrity screening.

The amount of the eighth tranche, following the seventh review in March, remains unchanged at $917.5 million, while the subsequent three tranches in 2025 are set at $809.6 million, $539.8 million, and $445.3 million, respectively, Interfax-Ukraine wrote. 

Ukraine’s 48-month EFF, with access to Special Drawing Rights (SDR) of 11.6 billion ($15.5 billion), was approved on March 31, 2023, and forms part of a $148 billion support package.