BRUSSELS, May 8. /TASS/. Envoys of 27 EU countries have preliminary approved a plan under which Ukraine obliges to carry out reforms in exchange for economic and budgetary assistance from the EU in the amount of 50 bln euros until 2027, the Belgian Presidency at the Council of the EU announced.

On April 15, this plan was approved by the European Commission (EC), now it must be approved by the EU Council at ministerial level.

The EC promised that if Ukraine carries out all the reforms according to this plan, by 2040 its GDP will grow by 14.2%.

Payments under the 50 bln euro program will be issued to Kiev in stages, as its obligations are fulfilled. The EC previously announced that in order to protect the financial interests of the European Union, an independent group of auditors will be created in May, which will help the European Commission prevent any misuse of European funds [by Ukrainians].

In reality, the EC has already begun payments under the 50 billion euro program - at the moment, 6 bln euros have been transferred to Ukraine in two tranches "in preliminary mode," since without these funds Kiev is not able to support its country’s budget. If the EU Council at the ministerial level approves this plan by the end of May, the EC intends to transfer another 1.89 bln euros to Ukraine this month.

Previously, the EC reported that out of 50 bln euros, 33 billion are allocated in the form of loans, 17 billion in the form of grants. This money has nothing to do with military supplies. They go to the current budgetary needs of Ukraine.