On October 9, Rome hosted the 11th meeting of the Steering Committee of the Ukraine Donor Platform, which had been established to coordinate international assistance and meet the immediate needs and long-term recovery of Ukraine. Today, the Platform unites 23 members, including permanent and temporary members, observers, the European Commission, and 7 international financial organizations.
During the meeting, the Steering Committee and its partners focused on the following priorities: mobilizing resources for external budgetary support for Ukraine in the context of the ongoing war, including through ERA loans, and rebuilding Ukraine, including the urgent needs of energy, critical infrastructure protection and housing reconstruction ahead of winter.
In his opening remarks, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal emphasized that it was extremely important that the ERA loans announced by the Group of Seven started to flow to Ukraine before the end of this year to ensure macroeconomic stability. “USD 50 billion of proceeds from immobilized russian assets is an important resource for ensuring macro-financial stability and meeting the needs of Ukrainians suffering from the long-lasting war,” the Prime Minister emphasized.
Denys Shmyhal also noted that the Government's priorities in the area of recovery are energy, rebuilding housing and critical infrastructure, humanitarian demining and support for private sector. “Now we will identify specific important projects through the Strategic Investment Council as part of a single portfolio of public investment projects. They will be implemented through the DREAM digital ecosystem,” the Prime Minister said.
The Co-Chair of the Platform from Ukraine, Minister of Finance of Ukraine Sergii Marchenko, spoke about the state and needs for financing the budget for 2025.
“The Ministry of Finance is working diligently to mobilize domestic resources to ensure the country's financial stability and self-sufficiency, as well as to fund the urgent needs of the security and defense sector. Despite these efforts, international financial support remains crucial for Ukraine. It has allowed us to fully cover priority social expenditures. In the first nine months of 2024, international budget support amounted to USD 24.5 billion, enabling us to fully fund pensions, healthcare, education, infrastructure recovery, and war-related recovery efforts,” said Minister of Finance of Ukraine Sergii Marchenko.
Oleksii Kuleba, Deputy Prime Minister for Restoration of Ukraine, Minister for Communities and Territories Development, spoke about the needs for restoration and priority projects. “Recovery is an important area of the Platform's work. We are talking about USD 5 billion, to cover the country's urgent needs in 2025. There is a huge demand from Ukrainian society for rapid recovery. Ukrainians want to stay in their communities despite the war,” the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized. Oleksii Kuleba also suggested that the partners establish an Advisory Council under the State Agency for Restoration and Infrastructure Development.
“In forming a single portfolio of projects on the part of the Ministry, we can see that it is necessary to divide projects into national and regional levels. Our task is to ensure that communities are actively involved in project submission and have the resources to strengthen their institutional capacity through the tools for preparing public investment projects,” emphasized Oleksii Kuleba.
Minister of Energy German Galushchenko told the partners about the current state, urgent needs and priorities of energy recovery. “Our critical needs are repair of energy infrastructure, decentralized generation, provision of backup generators and passive protection projects for energy infrastructure,” the Minister said.
Oleksii Sobolev, First Deputy Minister of Economy, outlined plans to modernize the single portfolio, create a project portfolio management unit (PPU) and develop criteria for their distribution among public investment project preparation (PPF) tools.
Background information
The Ukraine Donor Platform was established to coordinate support for Ukraine's immediate financial needs, reconstruction and future economic recovery from a variety of sources and established financing instruments. The Steering Committee of the Platform consists of senior officials from Ukraine, the G7 countries and the European Union. International financial institutions and organizations also participate in the Steering Committee meetings as active participants.
Senior officials from the United States, the European Commission and Ukraine co-chair the Steering Committee - Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economics Daleep Singh from the United States, Director-General for Neighborhood and Enlargement Negotiations Gert-Jan Koopman from the European Commission, and Minister of Finance Sergii Marchenko from Ukraine.
