European Union was ready to give Ukraine € 20 billion financial aid in the framework of Association Agreement

European Union and Western countries were ready to give Ukraine nearly 20 billion Euro financial aid for modernization of economy and implementing reforms necessary in the frameworks of association with EU and signing of Association Agreement.

This information was published by several Western media sources including Financial Times and Wall Street Journal referring to the intern documents being on the stage of preparation in EU.

“The amount of money of 20 billion Euro was named by European official preliminary and it would be given by International Monetary Fund (IMF) with the harsh and strict conditions”, stated the newspaper. – “But European Commission could help Ukraine to speed up the process of providing with this credit, according to the special memorandum of EU”.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian current President Victor Yanukovich has met Russian President Vladimir Putin in 17th December and signed several agreements with him, though the terms of many of them remain unknown to Ukrainian citizens and opposition. Russia significantly decreased the prices for natural gas for Ukraine and gave the government of Yanukovich $ 15 billion credit. 

Though this move pushed Ukraine far from Western Europe, think many experts. There is a serious threat that the perspective of signing of Association Agreement and negotiations over it could be frozen for an unknown period of time.

Thus Ukraine could get almost the same amount of money of financial aid from EU like it received from Russia, but European and IMF credits would be given under the strict conditions and for the special projects and implementation of reforms, unlike Russian credit, which doesn’t require Ukrainian government to modernize economy and implement reforms.

Though one of the key conditions for this credit is reaching agreement with IMF regarding its credit and its terms and signing of Association Agreement with the countries of EU.