Georgia: EU disburses €13 million grant in Macro-Financial Assistance

The European Commission, on behalf of the EU, disbursed €13 million in grants to Georgia. This represents the grant part of the first tranche of the EU's €46 million Macro-Financial Assistance programme (MFA) for Georgia approved in August 2013. This tranche also includes €10 million in loans, which will be disbursed shortly. The second tranche, amounting to €23 million, consisting of €10 million in grants and €13 million in loans, is planned to be disbursed in mid-2015.

Pierre i Moscovici, European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxations and Customs, said: "Europe is living up to its commitment. The EU is helping Georgia ease its financing constraints while supporting the government's economic reform agenda. We support Georgia's efforts to maintain macroeconomic stability while implementing growth-enhancing reforms and facilitating closer economic integration with the EU."

The MFA programme is intended to strengthen Georgia's balance of payments and budgetary position and to support reforms aimed at reinforcing economic governance, increasing social inclusiveness and promoting closer economic integration with the EU. Specifically, the MFA supports reforms in the areas of public finance management, social policy, banking supervision and trade and competition policy to help the implementation of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area with the EU.

Background

MFA is an exceptional EU crisis-response instrument available to EU neighbouring partner countries experiencing severe balance of payments problems. It is complementary to the assistance provided by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

This MFA to Georgia is the second of two operations pledged by the EU at the International Donor Conference in Brussels in October 2008, in the aftermath of that year's military conflict with Russia. It was approved by the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers on 12 August 2013. A previous MFA, amounting to EUR 46 million, all in grants, was successfully implemented in 2009-2010.

For more information:

Information on past MFA operations, including annual reports, can be found here:

http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/eu_borrower/macro-financial_assistance/index_en.htm

IP/15/3742

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