BRUSSELS, June 10. /ITAR-TASS/. The European Commission has raised €500 million in aid to Ukraine as part of the macro-financial assistance (MFA) program and will transfer the money to Kiev on June 17.

“The European Commission, on behalf of the European Union, today raised €500 million on the capital markets to fund the first loan tranche for Ukraine under the new Macro-Financial Assistance (MFA II) program. The funding was raised via a tap of the April-issued EU 10-year €2.6 billion bond, increasing it to €3.2 billion, following an initial tap of €100 million on 14 May. The proceeds of today’s operation will be disbursed to Ukraine on 17 June, the settlement date of the operation,” the European Commission said in a statement on Tuesday, June 10.

The first portion of the aid in the amount of €100 million was transferred to Ukraine on May 20. “MFA II is supporting Ukraine with loans of up to €1 billion and is implemented in parallel with the already approved program of €610 million (MFA I), totaling a combined amount of up to €1.61 billion,” the statement said.

The new Macro-Financial Assistance (MFA II) program is intended to assist Ukraine economically and financially in the current critical stage of its development. It is part of the package to support Ukraine announced by the European Commission on 5 March and endorsed by the European Council on 6 March.

Since January 2011 the EU has raised in total €48.2 billion from the bond market, used mainly for the European Financial Stabilization Mechanism or EFSM (€46.4 billion) and the remainder for a Balance of Payments loan program (€1.2 billion) and for Macro-Financial Assistance (€0.6 billion). Under the MFA for Ukraine up to €1.01 billion is still to be funded.