18 March 2022
Today, the European Commission disbursed a further €300 million in emergency Macro-Financial Assistance (MFA) to Ukraine and adopted a €120 million grant for Ukraine as budget support in the form of a State and Resilience Building Contract to support the Ukrainian Government in strengthening civilian crisis preparedness and management at both central and local levels.
This follow’s last week’s disbursement of €300 million, which formed the initial part of the first €600 million instalment under Ukraine’s new €1.2 billion emergency MFA programme announced by the European Commission on 24 January 2022, together with the €120 million grant support. The emergency MFA programme will make a meaningful contribution towards enhancing Ukraine’s macroeconomic stability in the context of Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified invasion. It represents a concrete demonstration of the EU’s unwavering support for Ukraine.
These first disbursements follow a swift adoption of the Commission’s proposal for a new emergency programme by the Council and the European Parliament. The remaining funds (€600 million) will be disbursed later in the year, in line with the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the EU and Ukraine. In parallel to implementing the emergency MFA programme, the Commission is preparing an additional MFA programme to further support Ukraine in the longer term, also announced by President von der Leyen at the end of January.
The State and Resilience Building Contract for Ukraine adopted today seeks to mitigate the impact of current and potential future crises in Ukraine. It envisages targeted policy measures aimed at addressing existing vulnerabilities that result from crises affecting society as a whole or particular critical infrastructure, including the transport network, information and communication systems and the power grid. The action will further support the preparedness of adequate response mechanisms at all levels of government and society. This support comes in addition to wide-ranging and unprecedented packages of measures the EU has been taking in response to Russia’s acts of aggression on Ukraine’s territorial integrity.