EU Commission disburses EUR 0.6 bln loan for Ukraine

The EU Commission disbursed a EUR 600 mln in Macro
Financial Assistance tranche to Ukraine on Dec. 9, the commission’s official
Valdis Dombrovskis twitted the same day. “This first tranche of emergency macro-financial
assistance confirms the EU’s solidarity with Ukraine and our continued close
cooperation,” he wrote. Recall, the EU agreed with Ukraine on a
COVID-19-related Macro Financial Assistance for a total value of EUR 1.2 bln in
June 2020.

Alexander Paraschiy: This is an unexpected move, taking into account that as recently as
yesterday the EU officials criticized the Ukrainian government for the slow and
insufficient recovery of its anti-corruption infrastructure after the damage
done by Ukraine’s Constitutional Court on Oct. 27. Nevertheless, this is a
positive development that will allow Ukraine to partially cover its huge budget
financing gap by the end of 2020.