EU leaders are set to call on Ukraine to “intensify” reforms - media
Kyiv • UNN
The EU will call on Ukraine to accelerate anti-corruption and tax reforms in order to receive financial support for 2026. So far, €14.9 billion has been allocated.
EU leaders are set to call on Ukraine to accelerate work on domestic reforms, which would unlock billions of euros in financial support earmarked for 2026, according to a preliminary draft of the European Council conclusions for next month. UNN writes about this, citing Rapporteur.
Details
The text contains a call on "all participants, including Ukraine, to intensify efforts to ensure the disbursement" of the €90 billion Ukraine Support Loan and funding under the Ukraine Facility for 2026.
Only €14.9 billion of the €45 billion loan earmarked for this year has so far been disbursed, partly because Ukraine's parliament has not adopted the anti-corruption and tax reforms demanded by Brussels, the publication writes.
The heads of state and government of the bloc's countries will meet on October 15 and 16 for talks on Ukraine, defense, migration, and the EU's next long-term budget.
The draft document emerged against the backdrop of what the publication describes as "growing frustration in Brussels over Ukraine's failure to carry out reforms linked to the €90 billion EU loan, which is intended to cover two-thirds of Kyiv's financing needs for 2026 and 2027".
On Monday, Ukraine's Finance Minister Serhii Marchenko, as the publication interprets it, "appeared to reject" Brussels' demand that Kyiv introduce tax reforms linked to the loan, arguing that Ukrainian businesses and citizens are already suffering because of increasingly brutal Russian drone and missile strikes, as well as Moscow's naval blockade of the Black Sea, which is destroying the economy.
"To be honest, I am not sure that now is the right time to introduce additional taxes for Ukrainians," Marchenko said at an event organized by the European Policy Centre, a Brussels-based think tank.
According to an internal briefing document seen by the publication, "Brussels has identified several reforms as being 'at risk' due to the Ukrainian parliament's inability to adopt the reforms."
"These include a law abolishing the tax exemption for imported parcels and a law on taxing income earned through digital platforms," the publication says.
"…it is very important that funding and reforms move forward together so that we can support Ukraine's resilience, as well as Ukraine's path to the EU," a European Commission spokesperson told reporters on Monday.
Marchenko will discuss Ukraine's financing needs at a meeting of the Ukraine Donor Platform, which coordinates international financing for Ukraine, to be held today, September 29, in Brussels and chaired by European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos, the publication writes.
The draft European Council conclusions may be changed.