EU allocates Euro 13 million to Georgia

The European Union (EU) is allocating Euro 13 million to support Georgia’s economic reform agenda.

The European Commission, on behalf of the EU, disbursed Euro 13 million in grants to Georgia. This represented the grant part of the first tranche of the EU's Euro 46 million Macro-Financial Assistance program (MFA) for Georgia, which was approved in August 2013.

This tranche also included Euro 10 million in loans, which will be disbursed shortly.

The second tranche, amounting to Euro 23 million, consisting of Euro 10 million in grants and Euro 13 million in loans, was planned to be disbursed in mid-2015.

European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxations and Customs Pierre Moscovici said the EU was 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,” he said.

The MFA program was 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 supported 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.

This MFA to Georgia was the second of two operations pledged by the EU at the International Donor Conference in Brussels in October 2008. It was approved by the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers on 12 August 2013.

A previous MFA, amounting to Euro 46 million all in grants, was successfully implemented in 2009-2010. (Agenda.ge)