During an interview for the American media
Politico,
the director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Odile Renaud-Basso, spoke about aid to Ukraine, which she describes as
“huge”
.
“EU financial aid is much larger in real terms than any post-World War II Marshall Plan as a percentage of GDP,”
she said.
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Odile Renaud-Basso refers to the important investment plan associated with George Marshall, former American Secretary of State.
This plan was put in place in the late 1940s to support the reconstruction of 16 countries, mainly in Western Europe.
Economic investment led to Europe's recovery from the devastation of the Second World War.
“Find a balance”
The senior French official also questions the repercussions of support for Ukraine for the population of EU member states.
“Compared to the real margin that EU leaders have in their budget to finance additional measures for their population, this is not an easy compromise,”
she emphasizes.
European leaders must
“find a balance”,
according to her, between support for Ukraine and financing
“national priorities”
.
Also read: War in Ukraine: how the European Union became kyiv's main financial supporter
The EBRD is well aware of the problem of reconstruction since the organization was created in 1991, on the initiative of François Mitterrand, to support the restoration of the countries of the former USSR.
Today, it covers 72 countries, including Ukraine, to which it has granted more than three billion euros in loans since the start of the war in 2022. Among its multiple actions, the EBRD helps the Ukraine to buy gas, or to produce electricity when the power plants are knocked out of operation by Russian bombing.
“We are going to increase our investments in Ukraine
,” Odile Renaud-Basso announced this Thursday, interviewed by the Belgian daily
L’Écho.
Europe, but also the United States, remain Ukraine's main financial supporters.
Last November, a parliamentary report reported a sum of more than 3 billion euros spent by France alone since the start of the war.
On February 1, the 27 agreed on new aid of 50 billion euros granted to Ukraine despite resistance from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.