It’s about a lot of money and solidarity – with the war-torn Ukraine, but also within the European Union: By September, the EU wants to get another financing package for Ukraine together, which the country had been promised for a long time. At least that was what German government circles said on Thursday. Around eight billion euros are under discussion so that Ukraine can continue to maintain and finance its state-owned enterprise. So far, however, this process has been tough. So tough that criticism of the lack of payments has already been heard from Ukraine.
“We expect eight billion euros,” said the deputy head of the presidential office in Kyiv, Ihor Zhovkva, according to agency reports on Tuesday. “Unfortunately, some EU countries, including Germany, are blocking the examination of this question.” President Volodymyr Zelenskyj is therefore conducting “active talks”. According to Zhovkva, Kyiv has already received one billion euros in macrofinancial assistance.
The federal government, however, promptly rejected the accusation. A spokesman for Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) made it clear on Wednesday that Germany was not blocking anything. On Thursday, a government representative also emphasized that Germany had already paid out one billion euros to Ukraine and would also contribute to further aid payments. One is in exchange with the European partners and the EU Commission. He rejects all indications that “Germany is blocking something here”.
The other G-7 countries together made only 700 million euros available
The background: At the G-7 finance ministers’ meeting in Bonn in May, the seven industrialized countries agreed on short-term financial aid for Ukraine. At the time, the United States agreed to contribute $7.5 billion, and Germany provided $1 billion; both as grants, not loans. The other G-7 countries, including the EU members France and Italy, held back and gave only another 700 million in the form of loans.
But then another eight billion euros should come from the EU, partly in the form of grants, partly as loans. The money is only intended as short-term help to alleviate Ukraine’s liquidity problems. On the other hand, other sources of finance must be found for the costs of reconstruction or for military aid. According to reports, the main reason why there are still problems with the payment of the aid is that the EU countries have not yet been able to agree on the distribution of the financial burden.
Germany wanted a balanced distribution of the burden, it said on Thursday. One can probably translate this by saying that Germany wants its G-7 billion to be at least somewhat taken into account in the overall European tableau. Despite the existing differences within the EU, the first results should now be available in September.
According to agency reports, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this week put his country’s war-related budget deficit at around five billion euros a month. That’s the number that was also mentioned at the spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund in Washington – and that ultimately led to the G-7 package.