It is necessary to conduct an audit of all financial assistance of the European Union allocated to Ukraine over the past five years. This was stated by Matteo Bianchi - a member of the Italian parliament from the League party, who is also an OSCE observer at the presidential elections in Ukraine.

“In the coming weeks, right now, we will demand from the EU leadership an audit of all the funds listed as assistance to your country. We are talking about almost € 13 billion in recent years ... Therefore, we will have a very clear requirement: answer exactly how Ukraine spent money from European aid, ”the Ukrainian edition of Vesti quotes him.

In the case of misuse of funds received from the EU, the perpetrators must be found and punished, Bianchi added.

In September 2018, Ukraine and the European Union signed an agreement concerning the fourth program of macro-financial assistance to the country with a total amount of € 1 billion. Funds are allocated in exchange for the fulfillment of certain conditions by Ukraine. In December 2018, the European Union transferred to Ukraine the first tranche in the amount of € 500 million.

In the EU countries, the question of where the money has been spent should have been a long time ago, says Dmitry Evstafyev, a professor at the HSE.

“It is strange that this issue arose in Italy, which was least involved in the financing of the Kiev authorities. If the issue of audit arises in countries such as the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, whose political elites have been actively involved in swaying the situation on the Maidan, then the issue will be seriously addressed, ”the expert said in an interview with RT.

Terms of assistance

In exchange for receiving macro-financial assistance from the European Union, the Ukrainian side promised to fulfill a number of conditions for the stabilization of Ukrainian statehood, in particular, to conduct a series of anti-corruption and other reforms. In February 2019, the head of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, Oksana Markarova, told reporters that her department was working on meeting EU requirements in order to attract the second tranche of macro-financial assistance with a volume of € 500 million in spring.

“We are working on meeting the conditions. But at the end of March - beginning of April, this is realistic (attracting the second tranche. - RT ), ”Interfax-Ukraine cites its words.

  • International Monetary Fund
  • Reuters
  • © Yuri Gripas / File

As Markarova said, in order to fulfill the conditions of the European Union, Ukraine in the near future must adopt two bills relating to the reform of the customs service.

The new tranche to Ukraine has not yet arrived, but in early March it became known that its separation could be under threat, since the Constitutional Court of Ukraine abolished the law on criminal liability for illegal enrichment. According to its provisions, government officials were required to confirm the legality of the acquisition of their assets. The international organization Transparency International, commenting on the decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, stressed that the repeal of this law violates the agreement with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, which could lead to freezing of further tranches.

“If a solution is not found, it is likely that the visa-free regime with the EU and the IMF’s financial assistance will be frozen,” the organization said.

Representatives of the European Union’s Anti-Corruption Initiative of the European Union in Ukraine (EUACI) project in the country also criticized the decision of the Ukrainian Constitutional Court. And representatives of the G7 countries and the World Bank called it “a defeat in the fight against corruption in Ukraine.”

Sources of "income"

In addition to macro financing, Ukraine regularly receives other assistance from the EU. For example, in December 2018, Kiev and Brussels signed an agreement to finance the technical cooperation program, under which € 37 million was allocated to the Ukrainian side to implement the association agreement. These funds were intended to help Ukrainian institutions "to strengthen respect for democratic principles, human rights and fundamental freedoms."

In January 2019, Petro Poroshenko during a meeting with the foreign ministers of Estonia, Lithuania and Poland, expressed the hope of increasing assistance from the European Commission and the EU states to support the Donbass and the Ukrainian Azov region. And this increase was approved in March - the European Union agreed to provide € 50 million in aid for a special project that is associated with supporting the security of the Azov coast of Ukraine, in particular Mariupol and Berdyansk.

  • Acting President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko
  • Reuters
  • © Valentyn Ogirenko

In addition, in early March, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine announced that Kiev received another loan from Deutsche Bank in the amount of over € 500 million under guarantees of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). The loan was granted in two tranches: a tranche of A in the amount of € 240 million with a maturity of four years and a tranche of B in the amount of € 289 million with a maturity of ten years.

“On February 28, Ukraine attracted a loan of € 529 million, granted by Deutsche Bank under a guarantee to support state policy in the field of economic growth and fiscal sustainability from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development,” the agency’s website said.

Recall that at the end of December 2018, Deutsche Bank had already provided Ukraine with a loan of almost € 350 million guaranteed by the IBRD.

Electoral nuances

As Vladimir Olenchenko, senior research fellow at the Center for European Studies at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said in a conversation with RT, statements about the need to control and use European finance in Ukraine will be another argument against the current president in the second round of elections.

“Now Poroshenko’s administration is more concerned with where to go after elections, and such statements about the need for an audit by European politicians may not work in favor of Poroshenko,” the expert noted.

In addition, reminded Olenchenko, before the presidential election, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine decided to close 300 corruption cases on illegal spending of money. This also extremely negatively affects the rating of Petro Poroshenko, the expert believes.

The second round of presidential elections in Ukraine will be held on Sunday, April 21. According to a number of public opinion polls, the rating of the current president, Petro Poroshenko, is significantly lower than that of Vladimir Zelensky. So, according to a survey by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology, 72.2% of citizens are ready to cast their votes for showmen, while Poroshenko is only 25.4%.

In turn, according to a survey of the sociological group Rating, 52% of voters are going to vote for Zelensky, 19% for Poroshenko. Another 19% did not make their choice, and 10% do not plan to vote at all.

The change of administration in Kiev is unlikely to reassure European politicians who want to know what the multi-billion tranches from the budgets of their countries went to, Vladimir Olenchenko notes. According to him, the EU is simply tired of financing the Ukrainian authorities.

“The European Union is tired of the country in which it invests money all the time and from which it does not receive returns. Ukraine is a large country with a big appetite, which has become another burden for Europe, ”the expert concluded.