European Commission proposes €8.04 billion for Ukraine under Ukraine Facility
The European Commission has proposed paying Ukraine €8.04 billion from the EU's Ukraine Facility programme, €264.6 million less than Kyiv requested. The reduction is linked to incompletely met conditions on supervisory boards of state companies and on preparing energy market liberalisation.
The European Commission, the EU's executive body, has proposed a partial payment of €8.04 billion to Ukraine under the Ukraine Facility, the programme through which the European Union funds Ukraine's recovery and reforms. The sum is €264.6 million lower than Kyiv requested, because Ukraine has not fully met two reform conditions. This follows from the Commission's proposal for an EU Council decision dated 21 October, which was seen by a correspondent of the outlet European Pravda.
What the proposal says
The document states that Ukraine has satisfactorily met the conditions for partial payment of the 4th, 7th, 8th and 9th tranches. The total is €8,040,665,425 before deduction of earlier pre-financing. Of this, €298,747,120 relates to the fourth tranche, €368,010,368 to the seventh, €95,530,669 to the eighth and €7,278,377,268 to the ninth. After the previously paid advance is deducted, Ukraine would receive about €7.8 billion, according to EU sources.
Completed and missed steps
Of the 18 steps for the ninth tranche, the Commission considers 16 satisfactorily completed. They include modernising the IT system for enforcing court rulings, approving a human rights strategy, an anti-human-trafficking programme, an employment strategy, and investment in education, healthcare and housing for disabled veterans, families of fallen veterans and internally displaced people.
Two steps remain unfulfilled: supervisory boards with a majority of independent members were appointed at 10 state-owned companies instead of 15, and a roadmap for the gradual liberalisation of the gas and electricity markets has not been adopted.
In calculating the amount, the Commission took into account partial fulfilment of the supervisory board requirement and the early completion of a step planned for the 10th tranche: a request for an IAEA mission to review regulation of nuclear and radiation safety. This raised the sum by €529.4 million, so the gap with Ukraine's request is €264.6 million rather than almost €800 million.
Approval of the payment requires a decision by the EU Council, expected by the end of November. Earlier, on 2 October, Ukraine received a €2.9 billion tranche under the same programme.
