The European Commission has proposed allocating €8.04 billion to Ukraine under the Ukraine Facility programme.
The amount turned out to be €264.6 million less than Kyiv’s initial request due to incomplete fulfilment of two conditions, European Pravda reports, citing sources.
After deducting an advance already paid, Ukraine will actually receive about €7.8 billion. The final decision on the payment is to be taken by the EU Council by the end of November.
For the current ninth tranche, Ukraine successfully completed 16 of the 18 planned steps. Achievements include modernising the IT system for enforcing court rulings, adopting the Human Rights Protection Strategy, launching programmes to combat human trafficking, and investing in education, healthcare and housing for veterans and internally displaced people.
At the same time, the Ukrainian side did not fully meet two requirements. The first concerns appointing supervisory boards with a majority of independent members — they were established at only 10 state-owned enterprises out of the 15 required. The second unmet condition is the adoption of a roadmap for the gradual liberalisation of the gas and electricity markets.
Despite these remarks, the European Commission took into account partial progress in forming supervisory boards, as well as the early fulfilment of one of the requirements for the next tranche — submitting a request for an IAEA mission. As a result, the regulator reduced the amount of funds withheld, preserving a larger share of the financing for Ukraine.