Business news from Ukraine

GERMANY WORKING ON ‘MARSHALL PLAN’ FOR UKRAINE – PARLIAMENT DEPUTY

29 February , 2016  

KYIV. Feb 29 (Interfax) – Germany is working on a ‘Marshall Plan’ for Ukraine, Karl-Georg Wellmann, head of the German-Ukrainian parliamentary group and German parliament member, has said.

“We have been working on a new strategy for Ukraine’s stabilization and development together with the Ukrainians. With much greater financial and political efforts. This is something new, and it will supplement the Association Agreement,” Wellmann said in an interview with the newspaper Segodnya.

The new strategy “is just being elaborated, it has not been incorporated into official policy,” he said.

“This is the idea of a solid ‘Marshall Plan’ for restoring the economy, management, the judiciary, etc. If this ‘Marshall Plan’ ever starts working, that will happen only under full control and monitoring [by Germany]. Europe is Ukraine’s destiny. But you will have to do you homework first. For example, that was done by the Poles after signing the Association Agreement with the EU 20 years ago,” the parliamentarian said.

As to whether Europe was tired of the political situation in Ukraine, he said Germany “did not want that to happen.”

The Ukraine situation is being broadly discussed in the German political community and the media, he said. “You have to understand that everything [happening] in the Ukrainian government and parliament is the subject of intense monitoring in Germany. The future of Ukraine bears great significance for the whole of Europe,” Wellmann said.