The European Commission considered on Wednesday the option of a new common loan within the EU inspired by the post-Covid recovery plan, to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine, but the subject arouses reluctance among the Twenty-Seven .
Read alsoWar in Ukraine: already 100 billion dollars in damage
Although the extent of Ukraine's needs for its reconstruction is not known, as the war is still ongoing, the Commission underlines that the damage is already estimated at "
hundreds of billions of euros, of which more than 100 billion for physical infrastructure alone
.
“
There is a time, sooner or later, when we will have to look at funding on a European scale as we did for Covid
,” said Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans at a conference in Paris.
hurry.
To support this reconstruction, the European executive is proposing to set up a financial instrument, "
RebuildUkraine
", backed by the European budget, which would make it possible to grant Ukraine loans and subsidies, conditional on reforms in terms of Rule of law and anti-corruption, and investments aligned with EU digital and climate goals.
The Commission specifies that it would be based on "
the experience acquired by the EU in the context of the Recovery and Resilience Facility
", the main instrument of the European recovery plan aimed at supporting the countries of the EU in the Covid-19 crisis, financed in an unprecedented way by common debt.
The necessary financial mobilization of Europe
According to the EU executive, "
grants to be granted to Ukraine could be financed either by additional contributions from Member States (and third countries which so wish) to the Facility (RebuildUkraine) and to existing Union programs (…) or through a targeted revision
” of the European budget 2021-2027.
"
These resources could also be used to finance the loans to be granted to Ukraine
" but "
given the scale of the loans which will undoubtedly be necessary, raising funds on behalf of the EU or with national guarantees from the Member States is one of the options being considered
,” the Commission said in a statement.
But the idea of a new common debt arouses reluctance, in particular in Germany and in the so-called “
frugal
” countries of northern Europe which had difficulty rallying to the European recovery plan in the summer of 2020. Commission "
invites Member States to explore these ideas
" to "
see if there is a will to go further
", commented cautiously a senior EU official, stressing that the proposals remained "
vague
".
