New French government favorable to Ukraine - Macron's special envoy

27.09.2024 15:00

Ukrinform

The new French government is pro-Europe and pro-Ukraine, so it will maintain aid flows and investment spending in its 2025 budget. In addition, France pays its share into the European budget, which provides macro-financial support scheduled for the next three years so there are no grounds for concerns that France's aid will wane.

That’s according to Pierre Heilbronn, the French President's Commissioner for Economic Assistance and Reconstruction of Ukraine, who spoke in a comment to an Ukrinform correspondent at the Congress of Regions in Strasbourg.

"You can be calm because, first of all, the main source of aid to Ukraine is European. This is a special program for Ukraine, macroeconomic assistance, macro-financial, and this is on what the European states have already agreed to spend EUR 50 billion. France pays its share of this estimate. Until 2027, France will have paid 18.6% or the equivalent to the EU budget, and this will definitely not change," Heilbronne emphasized.

As for the financing of Ukraine's needs, laid down directly in the French budget, the new government has enough tools and motivation to maintain all expenses for the next year.

"We have a Republic with a prime minister and a government that is very pro-European, so I don't think there is any doubt about that. In addition, there are tools with which they are already endowed. We have set up the French Development Agency, which already has EUR 450 million allocated for the next three years," Heilbronn explained.

He emphasized that the new Prime Minister Michel Barnier has always been loyal to Ukraine, so there is no need to be concerned that support will weaken.

"Barnier is also a great European, as his entire career in the European Commission proves. And this was the first question that President Zelensky asked me when I met him in Berlin, right after the president's decision to dissolve parliament. I answered him that it is obvious – France will continue supporting Ukraine. France is a democratic Republic, but in this regard, our institutions will continue to be organized," he emphasized, adding that he can also confirm this as the President's envoy, who cooperates with all ministries, the government, and Champs-Élysées.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, the Special Envoy of the President of France on Aid and Reconstruction of Ukraine, Pierre Heilbronn, announced that his country will allocate EUR 60 million in support to the Ukrainian energy industry by the end of the year.