The provision of funds to Ukraine as part of a new macro-financial assistance program will depend directly on the country’s progress as part of the program of cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Deputy Director-General for Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations at the European Commission (EC) Katarina Mathernova has said.
She said at the Dragon Capital investment conference in Kyiv on Thursday that a letter from the IMF or a current program with the IMF was needed for the launch of the EU’s macro-financial assistance program. When the Ukrainian authorities undertake to meet IMF requirements to attract a new tranche, this also concerns the EU, she added.
Speaking about the program itself, Mathernova said that it was still at the stage of procedural coordination, therefore the main details would be known in the second half of March.
At the same time, she noted that the issue concerned about 1 billion euro.
Ukrainian Finance Minister Oleksandr Danyliuk said on February 28 that the European Commission had approved a new program of macro-financial assistance to Ukraine.
A source familiar with Ukraine’s negotiations with the EU told the Interfax-Ukraine news agency that the volume of the new program was 1 billion euro.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said in November 2017 that agreement had been reached on a new program of macro-financial assistance from the EU to Ukraine for 2018-2019.
Earlier, the Finance Ministry estimated the volume of the new program at 1.8 billion euro. This corresponds to the volume of the macro-financial assistance of the EU approved in 2015, which expired in January 2018.
As part of the old program, Ukraine received two tranches for a total of 1.2 billion euro out of the planned 1.8 billion euro. The EC refused to grant the third tranche, as the country’s authorities fulfilled only 17 of 21 preliminary conditions.
