by Jorge Valero and Alberto Nardelli at Bloomberg
The executive arm of the European Union is blocking a 1.5 billion-euro ($1.5 billion) loan for Ukraine as caution prevails over the country’s urgent needs, according to officials.
The impasse amounts to a Catch-22 for Ukraine. The country is pushing for help to keep its economy afloat as it counters the Russian invasion, but has seen the proposed loan blocked by the European Commission’s budget unit because of concerns over its financial reliability, said the officials who declined to be named on a confidential issue.
The European Investment Bank, the EU’s lending arm, offered the loan to Kyiv to support the war-torn nation as its faces mounting war costs and revenues collapse. The commission guarantees EIB loans for operations outside the EU, with provisions usually amounting to 9% of total funding.
But in this case,…
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