Slovakia to Provide €5m from EU Fund for Ukraine for Non-Military Spending
The Slovak government yesterday agreed to provide five million euros from the EU Fund for Ukraine when it approved the Contribution Agreement between the European Investment Bank and the Slovak Republic, Aktuality reports.
The two agreements form the legal basis for the operation of the EU Fund for Ukraine, which was established by the EIB as one of the measures to support Ukraine after the military invasion of the Russian Federation in 2022. This measure is planned as a short-term and targeted initiative that will allow the bank to finance the reconstruction of the Ukrainian economy and public infrastructure while the new instruments are put into place, but will not be eligible to finance military expenditures.
Slovakia and 12 other EU countries officially declared their interest in contributing to this fund in July 2023. It was created by repaying the first instalment at the end of 2023. The amount of the liability attributable to the Slovak Republic is partly derived from the amount of the equity share in the EIB.
‘The share of the Slovak Republic in the fund will amount to five million euros in the form of guarantees or commitments to the EIB group, payable on demand,’ the Ministry of Finance explained in the presentation report. Payments will be made by Slovakia based on requests from the EIB, usually on a quarterly basis.
The fund's financial operations will be submitted to a meeting of the Depositors' Committee, which consists of representatives of the contributing countries and representatives of the European Commission (EC). In August of this year, 13 depositors participated in it with a total contribution of approximately €370 million.
The first approved financial operation since December 2023 was aimed at providing liquidity to small and medium-sized enterprises in Ukraine. Individual financial transactions under the fund may be approved until the end of 2025 or even later if the Depositors' Committee approves them unanimously.