The European Commission will not pay the third tranche of macro-financial assistance to Ukraine in the amount of 600 million euros within the framework of the program approved in 2015. This is stated on the website of the European Commission, Yevropeiska Pravda reports.
Earlier it was reported that Ukraine would lose the opportunity to receive a tranche of macro-financial assistance from the European Union of 600 million euros, if in the near future it does not fulfill a number of requirements.
There were four requirements that Ukraine failed to fulfill: lifting the ban on roundwood exports, launching an automatic check on e-declarations, the NBU credit registry law and checking information on beneficial owners of companies.
“A primary instrument in the EU's overall strategy vis-a-vis Ukraine was to provide €1.8 billion in MFA via the programme approved in April 2015, from which €1.2 billion have already been disbursed in two tranches. The availability of this current MFA programme expires at the beginning of January 2018”, - the report says.
Ukraine has fulfilled a large share of the policy commitments agreed with the EU. This includes important measures to increase transparency in public finance management; to launch public administration, judicial and governance reform; to advance ongoing reforms of the energy sectors, improve the business environment and reinforce social safety nets.
Four of the measures linked to the third and final tranche of this MFA currently remain outstanding. “Against this background, the Commission is not in a position to disburse the last tranche of the current MFA programme. We encourage Ukraine to maintain the reform momentum in the many areas that have progressed well, and complete the measures outstanding under the current programme, with the support of all stakeholders”, - the report says.
Marcofinance assistance is a long-term loan with very low interest, which the EU provides to partner countries. These funds go to the state budget and can be used to pay off the budget gap.