Financial support for Ukraine and RRFs at the core of Ecofin in Luxembourg

The meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (Ecofin) has been held on Tuesday October 8th in Luxembourg, the second under the Hungarian presidency. Two main topics were the focus of the debate: economic and financial support for Ukraine and RRFs – Recover and Resilience Facilities. 

“I would like to commend the work done by the European Commission in updating the implementation of RRFs, including considering amendments for recovery and resilience plans for Lithuania and Portugal” commented Mihàly Varga, Minister of Finance of Hungary. 

Support for Ukraine has also been at the core of the discussions. “During this Council meeting we addressed the economic and financial repercussions of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine” Minister Varga added. ”We received updates from the Commission on this situation, particularly with regard to the decision of the G7 initiatives to provide 50 billion U.S. dollars in loans to support Ukraine“. 

“The main topic of our discussion with practically all Ministers was Ukraine and our economic support after the Russian invasion – confirmed the European Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni. Ukraine is facing an hard winter, for reasons connected to the battle field, the destruction of energy facilities and to economic consequences”.

Paolo Gentiloni has also presented to the Ministers the package of proposals for the EU Commission to help Ukraine to cover its immediate needs and to give perspectives to the country. “In June, in Italy, the G7 decided to provide Ukraine with a 50 billion dollars loan – Gentiloni explained. This loan will be repaid with extraordinary revenue from immobilize assets. I think that this sends a clear message to the Cremlin that they will be directly responsible for the damage caused by this war of aggression”. 

The RRF disbursement was another topic of the meeting. The goal is to bring the Recover and Resilience Facilities by the end of this year to 3 hundred billions, meaning close to 15% of the RRF envelope. 

“Lastly – added the Minister of Finance of Hungary Varga – we approved the conclusions on Climate Finance in preparation for the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) scheduled from 11th to 22nd of November. The EU remains steadfast to its commitment to mobilize 100 billion dollars annually in climate finance until 2025, a goal we successfully met last year”.