Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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224. To ask the Minister for Finance Ireland’s contribution to the Ukraine Facility; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42846/24]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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At the European Council meeting on 1 February 2024, the mid-term revision of the EU Budget Multi-annual Financial Framework 2021-2027 was approved by all 27 Member States.

A key element of the mid-term revision is the introduction of the Ukraine Facility, comprising an EU support package of €50 billion for Ukraine, which will be provided in the form of loans (with a maximum amount of €33 billion) and grants (with a maximum amount of €17 billion).

The funding for the loan component is raised by the European Commission on the markets rather than through the Member States' EU Budget contributions. The loans are guaranteed by the EU Budget headroom, which is the space between the own resources and expenditure ceilings of the Multi-annual Financial Framework.

In the event that Ukraine was not in a position to make some or all loan repayments, the EU Budget would cover them. This in turn would be covered by the Member States via their EU Budget contributions, as under the Own Resources Decision Member States would be legally obliged to provide any amounts that need to be financed under the headroom. The necessary funds would be mobilised through an amending budget, allowing the Gross National Income key applicable at the time to be applied to calculate Member States' pro rata shares of liabilities.

The grant component is funded by the Member States EU Budget contributions, through a new thematic special instrument, the Ukraine Reserve, set up over and above the Multi-annual Financial Framework’s expenditure ceilings as part of the mid-term revision agreement.

The Ukraine reserve will be mobilised each year until 2027 as part of the annual EU Budget procedure taking into account the progress Ukraine makes in implementing reforms and using investments.

Given what is set out above and the annual nature of the process for determining the level of grants to be disbursed to Ukraine, it is therefore not possible at this juncture to provide a specific value for Ireland’s contribution to the Ukraine Facility. In addition, Member States' annual contributions to the system of own resources which fund the EU Budget are based on dynamic underlying variables and are subject to fluctuation.

Furthermore, Member States' contributions to the EU budget are not assigned to specific expenditure categories. Instead the contributions are made to the overall Own Resources pool in accordance with the "principle of universality" set out in Chapter 5 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046.