The Council of the EU agreed to provide Ukraine with a €35B package of macro-financial assistance, which will be part of a €45B ($50B) G7 loan secured by the Russian Federation’s frozen assets. The EU plans for the funds to become available to Ukraine in 2024 and for the loan to be repaid within a maximum of 45 years.
The new macro-financial assistance will be tied to the same political conditions established by the existing financial assistance mechanism from the EU’s Ukraine Facility program. The Council of the EU must approve the decision in writing after the European Parliament adopts the text in the first reading.
At the same time, the EU could not reach an agreement on extending the time between reviews of the sanctions that have frozen Russia’s assets from six months to three years. Hungary, which chairs the Council of the EU, did not bring the matter up for discussion. Orbán’s government plans to raise the issue in November, after the US presidential election.