The second tranche of the European Union’s macro-financial assistance will be provided to Ukraine immediately after the country takes steps to strengthen the rule of law and reform the judicial system, Vice-President of the European Commission for Interinstitutional Relations and Foresight Maroš Šefčovič has said.
“Now it is very important to continue this reform to strengthen further the rule of law. That is very intense discussion we also have in the EU and our Member States. Now we are issuing rule of law reports every year where we are assessing how the rule of law is respected in all our Member States,” Šefčovič said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
He said that this is not something specific for Ukraine – it is a really important task because it is about the performance of the state, it is about common values, it is about what is the atmosphere in the society.
“Also, it is very important to see the determination of Ukraine’s leadership to reform the judicial system in line with recommendation of the Venice Commission. We also welcome President Zelensky’s commitment to tackle oligarchs’ interest and influence in Ukrainian political and economic life. All these steps, which I mentioned, will really contribute to make Ukraine stronger, more resilient. Also, it would bring other support through macro-financial assistance. EUR 600 million were disbursed last December and I think once all these steps which I mentioned will be accomplished, the second tranche would come immediately after that,” Šefčovič said.
In addition, he said that Ukraine’s achievements over the last three decades have been very impressive especially because of the very difficult geopolitical environment.
“You had lots of challenges, you had invasion, annexation of your territory. As you know, the EU has always been at your side. If you look at the macro-financial assistance for EUR 16 billion – I think it’s by far the biggest assistance Ukraine has received. And we are ready to continue with these efforts. If you look at what you have accomplished over the last years it is quite clear that you have made an important progress in reforming media areas, public administration, anticorruption, macroeconomic stabilization,” the Vice-President of the European Commission said.
