BRUSSLES: The European Union will set up a reconstruction platform to coordinate the rebuilding of Ukraine after its war with Russia, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said.
The platform will be used to map investment needs, coordinate action and channel resources, von der Leyen told the Ukraine Recovery Conference in the southern Swiss city of Lugano on Monday.
“Since the beginning of the war, the European Union has mobilised around 6.2 billion euros ($6.48bn) in financial support,” von der Leyen said. “And … more will come. We will engage substantially in the mid- and long-term reconstruction.”
The two-day conference that opened on Monday, held under tight security in the picturesque city of Lugano, had been planned well before Russia’s full-scale invasion on February 24. It had originally been slated to discuss reforms in Ukraine before being repurposed to focus on reconstruction.
The platform will bring together countries, institutions, the private sector and civil society. It will also include international organisations like the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Bank.
The European Investment Bank, the lending arm of the EU, is proposing a funding structure previously used during the COVID-19 pandemic to help rebuild Ukraine with up to $104.3bn of investment, according to media reports.
“Through the reconstruction platform, the European Commission can offer its extensive expertise in running programs that combine reform and investments,” von der Leyen said.
“In addition, we have been working closely with Ukraine for a long time. And this work will only intensify now that Ukraine has formally become a candidate to join our Union.”
Europe has a special responsibility and a strategic interest to be at Ukraine’s side, she added. “The Kremlin’s goal is the military, political and economic destruction of Ukraine,” she said.
“They want to undermine Ukraine’s very existence as a state. We cannot and we will not let this happen.”
Rebuilding Ukraine is the “common task of the whole democratic world”, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday, insisting the recovery of his war-torn country would serve world peace.
“Reconstruction of Ukraine is the biggest contribution to the support of global peace,” Zelenskyy said, speaking via video link to the conference in Lugano. –Agencies
