Priority to local authorities and energy infrastructure: the French and Ukrainian presidents will sign two agreements on Friday at the Élysée with 650 million euros in the form of loans and donations to Ukraine.
The first agreement should make it possible to provide the French Development Agency (AFD) with “provisional funds of 400 million euros in loans and 50 million in donations until 2027” in order to “expand its activities in Ukraine”. The agency will be able to “deploy its entire range of instruments (…) to intervene in support of Ukrainian local authorities, in coordination and complementarity with donors already present in Ukraine”, explained the Élysée. The priority areas of intervention will be the energy and transport sectors with support for “the development of administrative capacities”.
“Supporting French companies in future calls for tenders”
The second agreement will concern the establishment of a “support fund” for critical infrastructures, endowed with 200 million euros “to support French companies in future calls for tenders (…) in the areas of energy, transport, water and sanitation, health and agriculture. “These funds will be used to finance important projects, to strengthen or supplement failing energy infrastructures” because they are particularly targeted by Moscow, it was emphasized.
Questioned also about the holding of Emmanuel Macron’s press conference on Friday, two days before the vote for the European elections, the Élysée did not wish to react while the president is already criticized by the oppositions for his intervention Thursday evening, from Normandy, on the 8 p.m. television news on TF1 and France 2.
Macron to attend Ukraine peace summit
French President Emmanuel Macron will “participate” in the conference on peace in Ukraine, which is to be held in Switzerland in mid-June, the Élysée also announced on Wednesday. In addition to military support for Ukraine “in the long term”, France intends to provide “its political and diplomatic support”, explained the Élysée. Ukraine hopes to gain broad international support at the summit by laying out the conditions it believes are necessary to end the war against Russia.
More than a hundred countries and organizations have committed to participating in the summit, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who urged countries in the Asia-Pacific region to join. The United States will not be represented by Joe Biden but by American Vice-President Kamala Harris.