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EU to provide Ukraine with €445 million loan for state reforms

The total volume of EU’s 2-year financial aid to Ukraine amounts to €11 billion

BRUSSELS, June 20. /ITAR-TASS/. The EU will augment a €1.6 billion bailout, which it has promised to provide Ukraine together with the International Monetary Fund, with a €445 million loan to balance its budget, as follows from a road map of Ukraine and EU association agreement released by EU Commissioner Stefan Fule on Friday.

The new loan will be split into an €80 million  tranche and a €365 million  loan aimed at financing state reforms, which will also be split into two tranches.

The EU has already disbursed €500 million and €100 million tranches of the €1.6 billion macro financial aid program. The total volume of EU’s 2-year financial aid to Ukraine amounts to €11 billion.

In the road map, the EU also suggested decreasing Ukraine’s dependence on a single gas supplier, Russia, by renewing gas agreements with Poland and Hungary and signing a reverse gas supply contract with Slovakia. It also suggested economic sanctions against Crimea which in March voted for joining Russia.

The road map envisages creating a joint working group to make gas transit to Europe safe, breaking state-owned energy firm Naftogas of Ukraine’s monopoly and raising gas prices - one of the conditions set by the IMF - with a simultaneous aid to poor families.