Dear Prime Minister, dear Denys, honourable media representatives,

I would like to start by reaffirming the EU’s solidarity with Ukraine while Russia continues its brutal war, killing its citizens and destroying its infrastructure.

The EU stands with Ukraine for as long as it takes.

We see that Russia’s aggression impact has gone beyond Ukraine. The recent tragic incident in Poland is a result of a massive wave of missile attacks on Ukrainian cities by Russia, targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure. These attacks are gross violations of international law.

Russia must stop its illegal war. The EU remains steadfast in our support for Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and its inherent right of self-defence against Russia’s aggression - as enshrined in the UN Charter.

Ukraine has much broader support as well: this week at the G20 summit in Bali, NATO and G7 leaders reaffirmed their support for Ukraine and its people, also to hold Russia accountable for its brazen attacks on Ukrainian communities.

Moving to today’s meeting, I would like to thank the Prime Minister for a very productive meeting on a number of topics of interest to both Ukraine and the European Union.

First, as promised and already mentioned, we discussed emergency financial support for Ukraine.

As you know, the EU has mobilised unprecedented financial and technical assistance since Russia started its war. This includes military support, for the first time in EU history.

Since the start of Russia’s aggression, the EU, its Member States and European financial institutions have provided a combined total of €19.7 billion to strengthen Ukraine’s economic, social, and financial resilience.

We are supporting Ukraine’s urgent financing needs through Macro-Financial Assistance programmes. The next payment - €2.5 billion - is to reach Ukraine on the 22nd of November.

Looking ahead to 2023, we aim to cover a sizeable part of Ukraine’s financing needs.

We plan to do this via an instrument of Macro-Financial Assistance +.

It will channel support up to €18 billion in highly concessional loans to Ukraine throughout next year, carried out in a predictable, continuous, orderly, and timely way.

As always with macro-financial assistance programs, this financial support will come with certain conditions. The conditions will focus on steps to strengthen the rule of law, enhancing good governance, fighting fraud and corruption.

We need to sign that Memorandum of Understanding as soon as possible to have a final approval of EU co-legislators.

Our MFA+ proposal is now being considered by the European Parliament and the EU Member States, and I hope that its final approval will come in early December.

This should enable us to agree on the Memorandum of Understanding this year and correspondingly, the Commission will be able to make a first disbursement in January 2023 – covering just in time for Ukraine’s pressing financing needs at the start of next year.

Today, the Prime Minister and I also discussed coordination with our international partners so that everyone plays a fair part in contributing towards Ukraine’s immediate financial needs for next year.

We also discussed longer-term goals for rebuilding Ukraine, as agreed at the landmark Berlin conference in October organized under Germany’s G7 Presidency.

Ukraine’s reconstruction needs are very sizable - hundreds of billions of euros - and they continue rising. Correspondingly, the international community will help to identify new financing sources.

This includes looking into legally sound mechanisms to make Russia pay for the damages it has created here. The EU welcomes the UN resolution calling for Russia to pay reparations to Ukraine for the war that is has started.

There is a broad consensus that Ukraine’s long-term reconstruction needs to be embedded in its EU pre-accession process. Given its EU candidate country status, Ukraine’s rebuilding process is an opportunity to align further to EU laws and standards, such as the single market standards, but also rule of law and other EU principles and policies.

Ukraine’s European path will provide a stable regulatory framework, enabling a positive climate for investment and dynamic economic development.

We also discussed the latest trade developments in the context of deepening Ukraine’s integration into the EU single market, and we agreed to work an ambitious revised Priority Action Plan to further this aim.

We are now working on accelerating the full implementation of our trade agreement.

This would increase Ukraine’s access to the EU internal market so that its people can see a real difference on the ground.

For example: extending our internal market provision for roaming for Ukraine, and work towards reaching an Agreement on Conformity Assessment and Acceptance, the so-called ACAA Agreement.

Lastly, I would like to mention Solidarity Lanes, which have been a lifeline for Ukraine’s exports. Last week, the EU announced further financial support to reduce bottlenecks and improve capacity.

Before arriving in Kyiv, I went to see first-hand how the Solidarity Lanes are working on the ground at the Dorohusk/Yahodyn border crossing point.

Since May, these EU Solidarity Lanes have allowed Ukraine to export more than 34 million tonnes of goods and import more than 11 million tonnes. Until July, the Solidarity Lanes were the only option for Ukraine to export its agricultural products.

Prime Minister: as Ukraine embarks on its European path, you have the EU’s full support for your efforts to liberate the whole of Ukrainian territory, to run Ukraine under extremely difficult circumstances, and to carry out necessary reforms and to rebuild your country.

These are not small tasks – and we are there for you.

Thank you.