KYIV. April 22 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The European Commission has disbursed a loan of EUR 250 million to Ukraine, which is the last disbursement under the first macro-financial assistance (MFA) for Ukraine, which totals EUR 610 million and was approved in 2014.
“Our assistance helps to address Ukraine’s urgent financing needs and will underpin its structural reform agenda. These reforms are essential in order to stabilize the Ukrainian economy and create the conditions for sustainable growth for all Ukrainians,” the European Commission’s press service quoted European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs Pierre Moscovici as saying.
The European Commission raised the funding for this tranche disbursement on financial markets by a private placement on April 14, 2015. This was achieved through the issue of a EUR 260 million amortizing bond with a final maturity of 15 years, a 10-year grace period and a yield of 0.519%. Of these funds, EUR 250 million was lent on to Ukraine on Tuesday on effectively the same terms, offering a long maturity at a very attractive interest rate, the European Commission said.
Prior to today’s payment, the commission had made two disbursements under this first MFA operation: EUR 100 million on May 20, 2014 and EUR 260 million on November 12, 2014.
The second MFA program for Ukraine, which totals EUR 1 billion, was also disbursed in 2014: a first disbursement of EUR 500 million took place on June 17, 2014, and the second tranche was paid on December 3, 2014.
A third MFA program worth EUR 1.8 billion was approved by the European Parliament and the Council on April 15, 2015. It will be implemented as soon as agreement has been reached between the EU and Ukraine on a Memorandum of Understanding specifying the policy programme accompanying the assistance. The Commission aims to be able to make the first disbursement of this new MFA operation around mid-2015.
