REUTERS

The European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee has voted for a new Macro-Financial Assistance (MFA) for Ukraine.

"The EP's foreign affairs committee voted in favour of a new MFA for Ukraine but added the amendment that 'the composition of the Central Election Commission of Ukraine reflects a political balance representing all relevant political forces, notably those represented in the [Verkhovna] Rada,'" Brussels reporter for Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty Rikard Jozwiak tweeted on May 16.

Read alsoEuropean Commission proposes EUR 1 bln in new macro-financial assistance for Ukraine

As UNIAN reported earlier, the European Commission actively supports Ukraine in the challenging times and has disbursed a total of EUR 2.8 billion in macro-financial assistance (MFA) through three consecutive programs of low-interest loans since the outbreak of the crisis in early 2014. This represents the highest amount ever made available by the EU to a third partner, the EC said.

Out of these EUR 2.8 billion, EUR 1.6 billion was disbursed in 2014-2015 under the first two MFA operations (MFA I and II), while EUR 1.2 billion was released in 2015-2017 under the third MFA program (MFA III). In March 2018, the European Commission adopted a proposal to provide an additional EUR 1 billion of MFA to Ukraine to cover the country's external financing needs and support accelerated reform implementation. This proposal is now pending approval of the European Parliament and the Council.