During a meeting with her Ukrainian counterpart Arseniy Yatsenyuk on Monday, Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz announced that Poland will provide a loan worth EUR 100 million to Ukraine.

The loan is intended to help rebuild the Donbas region, the site of the ongoing conflict in Eastern Ukraine, as well as to support democratic reforms in the country.

Yatsenyuk commented that “this is very concrete support for small and medium-sized enterprises in Ukraine, as well as a huge support for the whole Ukrainian economy.”

The Polish Ministry of Finance stated that the conditions of the loan will be negotiated between itself and the Ukrainian Finance Ministry, although the intended priorities of the loan will be in accordance with OECD guidelines.

During the meeting the prime ministers also explored non-financial ways in which to strengthen Polish-Ukrainian relations.

“During talks with the [Ukrainian] Prime Minister we agreed that we will act to strengthen the bonds between our nations, especially between the younger generations,'' Kopacz said.

''We will create a Polish-Ukrainian council for youth exchanges in future.”

Kopacz added that the two had also discussed increasing opportunities available in Poland for Ukrainian university students, saying that Poland is now offering to provide bursaries to 500 Ukrainian students for 2015.

Gas link

Other future projects planned during Kopacz's one-day visit to Kiev included the construction of a gas interconnector between Poland’s new LNG terminal and Ukraine, which would allow Poland to supply Ukraine with up to 10 billion cubic metres of gas per year.

This could be a key factor in allaying Ukraine's dependence on Russian gas. (sl)

Source: Polish Radio