Published 24 October 2024 at 17.02
EU. The EU Parliament has given the green light to an extraordinary loan of up to 35 billion euros (equivalent to 384 billion kroner) to Ukraine – money to be repaid using future revenues from frozen Russian assets.
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Parliament approved the new macroeconomic loan with 518 yes votes, 56 no votes and 61 abstentions.
The purpose of the financial support is to provide immediate assistance to Ukraine's increasingly urgent financing needs. The loan is the EU's contribution to the initiative agreed by G7 leaders last June to provide Ukraine with up to 50 billion US dollars (about 45 billion euros). The final amount that the EU will contribute may possibly be lower, depending on the size of the loans provided by other G7 partners.
The recently established cooperation mechanism for loans to Ukraine will make future proceeds from the Russian central bank's frozen assets in the EU available to Ukraine. These funds aim to help Ukraine administer and repay EU macro-financial assistance as well as loans from other G7 partners. However, Ukraine can distribute the macroeconomic funds as the country sees fit.
The new aid will be disbursed until the end of 2025. The loan is granted on the condition that Ukraine continues to maintain effective democratic mechanisms, respect human rights and additional political conditions to be determined in a memorandum of understanding. In addition, the management and control systems described in the Ukraine Plan, as well as special measures to prevent fraud and other irregularities, will apply to the macroeconomic loan.
– Russia must pay for attacking Ukrainians and brutally destroying the country's infrastructure, cities, villages and homes. The burden of rebuilding Ukraine will be borne by those who are responsible for the country's destruction, namely Russia, said the rapporteur and the Swedish liberal Karin Karlsbro after the vote.
The representatives of the EU countries in the Council have already supported the proposal and the Council is expected to adopt the Regulation by a written procedure after the Parliament's vote. It will then enter into force the day after it is published in the Official Journal of the European Union.
Around 210 billion euros in assets from Russia's central bank are in the EU and remain frozen due to the EU sanctions which was introduced after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. EU governments have decided to set aside the profits from these assets and use them to support both the war in and the reconstruction of Ukraine.