EU lawmakers must quickly approve loan for Ukraine — Mathernova

EU Ambassador to Ukraine Katarina Mathernova announced this in an interview with Ukrinform.

“I very much hope that people in Ukraine will see this as a demonstration of Europe standing by Ukraine and delivering that so quickly after the leaders met in December. The European Commission was able to put on the table and approve the legislative proposal. And I very much hope that this will give a pause to the skeptical voices that one can hear. I think this is a great day for the EU and a great day for Ukraine,” she stated.

Responding to a question about expectations for rapid approval of the proposal at the legislative level, she said: “I am fairly certain because support for Ukraine is something that both the European Parliament and the EU Council are unified on.”

At the same time, she noted that the word “unified” should be written “with an asterisk” because this proposal was adopted within the framework of the so-called enhanced cooperation procedure between EU member states, as only 24 of the 27 member states support the loan.

“So I'm fairly certain that Ukraine enjoys a lot of cross-party support in the EP and in the EU Council, and this will be dealt with very rapidly so that legislation can be done and we can act very quickly,” Mathernova concluded.

As reported by Ukrinform, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has announced the details of the approved proposal for a joint European loan to Ukraine, amounting to €90 billion for the next two years.

She explained that one-third of the loan, €30 billion, will be paid out for budget support, and two-thirds, €60 billion, for defense support.

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