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conference comes amid weeks of Russian air attacks on the country’s energy facilities. These have damaged or destroyed more than half of national energy generation capacity and raised questions about how Ukraine will provide many of its citizens with light and heating this winter.
While visiting Kyiv last week, EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso and Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) setting out €300 million of new EBRD emergency support for the energy sector. The EBRD will continue to explore with its partners further ways to support the country’s energy security.
In Berlin, the EBRD was active in all four of the conference’s thematic areas: EU accession; business development; local, municipal and regional development; and human capital development.
In the area of EU accession, the European Union agreed to provide €517 million to Ukraine through EBRD programmes to support its economy and recovery. The agreements were signed on Tuesday by Managing Director for Ukraine and Moldova, Arvid Tuerkner, and European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis.
In the business category, the EBRD signed multiple transactions.
· An EBRD equity investment in a renewable energy joint venture led by a German investor to build and operate new solar power generation facilities in Ukraine. The EBRD is also lending €60 million to finance the construction of a privately owned Ukrainian greenfield biofuels project.
· Two transactions with local banks: a €20 million local-currency loan to Bank Lviv and a €50 million unfunded portfolio risk-sharing facility to Raiffeisen Bank Ukraine. These instruments will strengthen the banks’ lending capacity and boost access to finance for Ukrainian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
· A pre-financing agreement with PrivatBank for an unfunded portfolio guarantee, which, once signed, will cover up to 50 per cent of PrivatBank's credit risk on newly issued sub-loans worth up to €400 million to private businesses. This will help Ukrainian companies continue their operations, safeguard livelihoods and invest in projects that contribute to the country’s food production, energy efficiency and energy generation.
· To support Ukraine's cross-border trade, the US International Development Finance Corporation and the French development agency Proparco declared their intent to share the risk on the EBRD’s trade finance exposure in Ukraine in the coming year. The two institutions intend to provide up to US$ 50 million each in risk-sharing guarantees, to support the export and import of critical goods. The arrangement builds on a plan drawn up last year by development finance institutions to collaborate on co-investments in Ukraine’s private sector.
· The EBRD and IFC agreed to continue advancing their
21 UKRAINE Country Report July 2024 www.intellinews.com