Brussels : europe and arabs 

The European Commission, on behalf of the EU, has today proposed a further €5 billion in macro-financial assistance (MFA) loans to Ukraine as the second part of the exceptional MFA package of up to €9 billion announced in the Commission's Communication  of 18 May 2022 and endorsed by the European Council of 23-24 June 2022. The Commission disbursed the first €1 billion of this MFA package in early August. The remaining up to €3 billion will be provided as soon as possible. This additional MFA of €5 billion is part of the extraordinary effort by the EU, alongside the international community, to help Ukraine to address its soaring financial needs following the unprovoked and unjustified aggression by Russia. The proposal will complement the support already provided by the EU, including a €1.2 billion emergency MFA loan paid out in the first half of the year. Taken together, the two strands of the programme would bring the total MFA support to Ukraine since the beginning of the war to €7.2 billion, and could reach up to €10 billion once the full package of exceptional MFA to Ukraine becomes operational this year. The loans to Ukraine will be backed by guarantees provided by Member States which will complement the provisioning available from the EU budget. To finance the MFA, the Commission borrows on capital markets on behalf of the EU, in parallel to its other programmes, most notably NextGenerationEU and SURE