Macro-Financial Assistance (MFA) is a form of financial aid extended by the EU to partner countries experiencing a balance of payments crisis. It takes the form of medium/long-term loans or grants, or a combination of these.
MFA beneficiaries include Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Georgia, Jordan, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Tunisia, Ukraine.
Read more about the MFA programme
MFA + for Ukraine
In 2023, the EU provided €18 billion in MFA+ support to Ukraine. This support came in the form of highly concessional loans, disbursed in regular instalments. This stable, regular and predictable financial assistance helped to cover a significant part of Ukraine's short-term funding needs for 2023. To raise the funds, the Commission issued EU-Bonds under its unified funding approach. This enabled the Commission to disburse funds to Ukraine in a more flexible manner, using its central funding pool.
Under MFA+, Ukraine also benefitted from more concessional loans compared to previous programmes, with a maximum repayment period of 35 years, beginning in 2033. The MFA+ instrument was accompanied by reforms to help Ukraine advance on its path to becoming a member of the EU, including anti-corruption and judicial reforms, respect of the rule of law, good governance and modernisation of national institutions.
From 2024 to 2027, the EU will continue to provide financial support to Ukraine through the new Ukraine Facility. This is a dedicated instrument which will allow the EU to provide Ukraine with up to €50 billion in stable and predictable financial support over the period. Up to €33 billion of this amount will be provided in loans that will be financed through EU-Bond issuances.
Guaranteeing borrowing for Ukraine under MFA +
For all EU issuances, the EU budget provides the ultimate guarantee for the timely repayment of EU debt, irrespective of the programme being financed.
Borrowing to finance MFA+ loans to Ukraine is therefore fully backed by the EU Member States’ commitments to contribute resources to the EU budget, just like borrowing to finance loans to EU Member States under programmes such as SURE and EFSM. The bonds issued to fund the MFA+ loans to Ukraine therefore have the same credit quality as all other EU issuances.
Financing to Ukraine under MFA+ is supported by additional interest rate subsidies by Member States.
MFA for Ukraine over the years
Ukraine has been one of the long-standing beneficiaries of the EU MFA programme. Between 2014 and 2021, the EU has provided over €5 billion to Ukraine through five MFA programmes.
In 2022, following Russia's war of aggression against the country, Ukraine benefitted from a total of €7.2 billion of MFA support. The funds were provided in several tranches over the course of the year.
Documents
All legal documents linked to the unified funding approach are available online here.
QA
Questions and answers about the borrowing and lending work of the European Commission, including the MFA + programme for Ukraine, are available here.