European Commission announces decision on EUR 18.1B loan for Ukraine, with first tranche in January

This is said in a press release published on the European Commission’s website, Ukrinform reports.

As noted, this is the EU's contribution to the G7 Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration Loans for Ukraine (ERA) initiative, which will collectively provide EUR 45 billion in loans to meet Ukraine's fiscal, military and reconstruction needs.

The ERA initiative is based on the Ukraine Loan Cooperation Mechanism, which will receive extraordinary revenue from the immobilization of Russian sovereign assets and other voluntary contributions from member states and third countries. These funds will be disbursed to Ukraine to repay the principal and interest on loans to countries that have provided loans to Ukraine under the ERA initiative, including macro-financial assistance.

The decision comes after the Commission concluded that Ukraine had fulfilled all the political conditions agreed for the disbursement of this sum. These political conditions also represent steps towards the fulfillment of key reform commitments under the Ukraine Facility. These include macro-financial stability, reform of state-owned enterprises, public administration reform, energy, rule of law, and the fight against corruption.

The political conditions also include a commitment to promote cooperation with the EU on the recovery, reconstruction and modernisation of the Ukrainian defence industry.

As reported, in early December, Ukrainian Finance Minister Sergii Marchenko signed an agreement with the EU on establishing the Ukraine Loan Cooperation Mechanism (ULCM), which would allow the use of proceeds from frozen Russian assets to repay loans worth up to EUR 45 billion under the G7 Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration Loans for Ukraine (ERA) initiative.

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