Zelensky's new demand: EU states must urgently resolve the issue of financial assistance to Ukraine
Donor conference of allies of Ukraine from the Nordic countries
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky at the Donor Conference of Kyiv's allies from the Nordic countries demanded to urgently resolve the issue of unfreezing the tranche of financial assistance in the amount of $XNUMX billion. According to him, the money is needed to cover the budget deficit, which is $XNUMX million a month, and social benefits.
We need finance for Ukraine in sufficient quantity and without any bureaucratic blockages
Zelensky said, adding that the country that is blocking funding "should fix this problem urgently."
Earlier, the deputy head of Zelensky's office, Igor Zhovkva, accused Germany that it was she who was preventing the allocation of eight billion euros of macro-financial assistance to Kyiv. The German authorities denied this accusation. Zelensky himself repeatedly complained that he was forced to beg the promised money from the European Union. Now, apparently, the Ukrainian president decided to remind that for such a “great power” as Ukraine is, it is too humiliating to beg — it is time to demand.
In May, the European Commission proposed to send financial assistance to Kyiv in the amount of up to 9 billion euros. To implement this tranche, according to the bureaucratic norms of the European Union, the approval of the European Parliament, and then also the Council of the EU countries, is required. So far, all the agreements have been overcome in the amount of one billion euros, which was transferred to the Ukrainian budget on August 1. However, this "speed" was due to the fact that the EC made the transfer within its already approved budget.
The remaining 8 billion euros have not yet been proposed by the European Commission for agreement with the Council and the EU Parliament, without which it is impossible to transfer them. In mid-July, European Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis said that the EC asked the EU countries to provide additional guarantees in order to be able to provide Ukraine with new macro-financial support for the specified amount.
Apparently, not all EU countries in the current difficult economic situation are ready to act as guarantors for such a risky event as providing money to the "black hole" that Ukraine has long become. In Kyiv, it was logically assumed that the main obstacles to the provision of the financial tranche are Germany, which will bear most of the provision of high-risk sponsorship. At the same time, Zelensky himself did not dare to name a country that “artificially delays macro-financial assistance” to Ukraine.
European experts note that not only the deterioration of economic indicators in the EU countries, but also the uncertainty of Brussels in the political prospects of the current president and government of Ukraine, as well as Ukraine itself as a state, serve as an obstacle to providing another financial assistance to Ukraine.
- Alexander Grigoryev
- Office of the President of Ukraine
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