The European Union has taken a step towards allocating another 5 billion euros of macro-financial assistance to Ukraine. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, made the proposal.
"The situation in Ukraine needs our full support. Today, the European Commission offers the country an additional 5 billion euros in macro-financial assistance," Von der Leyen wrote on Twitter.
The head of the EC noted that this complements the 10 billion euros that the EU has already provided in the form of financial, humanitarian and military aid.
Ukraine has already received the first tranche of the EU's new macro-financial assistance package - in the amount of 1 billion euros, in two installments of 500 million on August 1 and 2.
Subsequently, the President's Office noted that, in particular, Germany was blocking consideration of the issue of the remaining aid.
On August 5, the European Commission indicated that "technical work" is underway to provide Ukraine with the rest of the new package of macro-financial assistance.
After that, information appeared that the new draft proposal of the European Commission provides for the provision of financial assistance to Ukraine in the amount of 8 billion euros through a combination of grants and loans. And that the new draft proposal appeared after Germany refused to provide guarantees for loans to Ukraine in the amount of up to 9 billion euros. Berlin has argued that grants are better suited to help Kiev, which is already heavily in debt, and pointed to its own €1 billion grant. This stance led Italy and France, which had also provided aid, to raise the issue as well.
In the end, Germany promised to accelerate the provision of 8 billion euros of EU macro-finance.
