Since the start of the Russian special operation, the European Union has allocated a total of €19.7bn to Ukraine and announced that it will continue its financial assistance. At the same time, Ukraine is being asked to prove that European taxpayers’ money will not end up in the pockets of officials and oligarchs, writes Das Erste.
The paper noted that the EU had promised to lend Ukraine up to €18bn for 2023, but the European Commission conditioned that the money would come only when Kiev “makes satisfactory progress” in fighting widespread corruption and fraud and also in strengthening the rule of law. Kiev will also have to report in detail on the spending of the allocated funds.
The article reminds that before the Russian special operation, the European Court of Accounts issued a “crushing verdict” to Kiev’s efforts to carry out liberal reforms, concluding that corruption is widespread in Ukraine and that “state capture” is also recorded, where private interests have significant influence on decision-making processes in the state.
Nevertheless, to combat these destructive phenomena in Ukraine, the EU has “not developed a real strategy,” the weekly summarized.
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