Ukraine and the European Commission (EC) on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding on the new package of macro-financial assistance from the EU worth EUR 1.8 billion.

The memorandum was signed by EC Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis, Ukrainian Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko, and Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine Valeriya Gontareva. The President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko was present at the ceremony, Interfax-Ukraine has reported.

As reported, the first program of the EU macro-financial aid for Ukraine worth EUR 610 was approved in the spring of 2014 and was provided to Kyiv in three tranches in the period from May 2014 until April 2015.

The second MFA program for Ukraine, which totals EUR 1 billion, was also disbursed in 2014: a first disbursement of EUR 500 million took place on June 17, 2014, and the second tranche was paid on December 3, 2014.

A third MFA program worth EUR 1.8 billion was approved by the European Parliament and the Council on April 15, 2015. The EC aims to be able to make the first disbursement of this new MFA operation around mid-2015.