G. Skaistė to Reuters: "In the EU budget, we should earmark more funds to Ukraine and to strengthening the countries' military mobility"

"The European Union should earmark more cash to support Ukraine in its revised long-term budget and top up the funds for EU military mobility," Minister of Finance Gintarė Skaistė told the Reuters news agency.

As part of a review of the EU's 2021-2027 budget, the European Commission in June proposed EUR 50 billion in grants and loans for Ukraine to finance Kyiv as it fights off russian aggression. This year, the EU provided Ukraine with EUR 18 billion in concessional loans, but if the initial proposal of 50 EUR billion remains, Ukraine will only receive EUR 12.5 billion annually from 2024 to 2027.

"If you divide the proposed EUR 50 billion over four years, the amount of money will be much less than this year. Therefore, we suggest considering the possibility of maintaining the same level of funding as in 2023,” Minister G. Skaistė told Reuters. "If we had the same level as in 2023, then EUR 72 billion would reach Ukraine."

At the same time, the Minister noted that when revising the EU budget, additional, higher amounts of funds should also be allocated to military mobility – roads, air and sea ports, bridges and other necessary infrastructure that allows the armed forces to move quickly – since EUR 1.7 billion that were initially granted for this purpose are not enough.

"We see that the need for military mobility infrastructure is increasing. For Lithuania alone, it exceeds EUR 1 billion," commented Minister G. Skaistė.

 Full publication of the Reuters news agency is available at: https://www.reuters.com