MEPs in the European Parliament have approved a €90 billion loan from the European Union to Ukraine, to fill a glaring budget shortfall Kyiv was facing in the coming months.
The EU’s 27 national leaders agreed to extend a huge loan to Ukraine at a summit in December, to shore up Kyiv’s finances for the next two years.
The money will be borrowed on the markets by the EU as a bloc, with the idea that the union would be repaid by Ukraine from the proceeds of Russian war reparations, in the event of a peace settlement.
The parliament approved the loan package in a vote on Wednesday. Some 458 MEPs voted in favour, 140 against, with 44 abstaining.
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Sinn Féin’s two MEPs, Lynn Boylan and Kathleen Funchion, voted against the loan at a parliament session in Strasbourg. Left-wing Independent Luke “Ming” Flanagan also voted against it.
Sinn Féin opposed a Government motion seeking support for the €90 billion EU loan in the Dáil last week.
Finance spokesman Pearse Doherty said the money would be better spent elsewhere and criticised the loan as funding “an enormous escalation in military financing” for a war with “no end in sight”.
Labour Party MEP Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, who voted to approve the loan, said some political parties seemed not to realise “the magnitude of the threat that Europe faces from Russian aggression”.
“Sinn Féin’s lack of support for Ukraine in this vote, coupled with the disgraceful rhetoric of Pearse Doherty in recent weeks, is more than disappointing. It amounts to a death sentence for Ukrainian men women and children,” the Dublin MEP said.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee said Sinn Féin’s decision to vote against the loan “shows exactly who they are and what they stand for”.
The Fine Gael minister said the loan was being provided to Ukraine, a “country that has been bombarded for four years” by Russia, where civilians were “literally in sub-freezing temperatures”.
“This loan is to support them in their defence structures, but also to provide much needed humanitarian assistance,” McEntee told reporters in Brussels. “Anybody who voted against this, that’s exactly what they’re voting against,” she said.
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael MEPs backed the package of financial aid to Ukraine.
The loan “undermines” Ireland’s neutrality and commits the country to “financing a war rather than supporting a genuine peace process”, Funchion said in advance of the vote. “This is why we as Sinn Féin MEPs will not be supporting it,” she said.
Independent Ireland MEP Ciaran Mullooly said he voted to support the loan on the basis some of the funds would go towards humanitarian purposes, and the remainder ensured “Ukraine has the capacity to defend itself”.
Under the terms of the EU loan, €60 billion will provided for military spending and Ukraine’s defence on the battlefield, and €30 billion will shore up Kyiv’s budget and broader fiscal position.
The loan contains a clause that Ukraine should “in principle” use the money to buy weapons and defence equipment from the Ukrainian or European defence industry. However, exemptions will apply to permit Ukraine to buy arms and equipment from the United States, given its crucial role in supplying Kyiv since the start of Russia’s invasion.
Internal EU assessments had forecast Ukraine would begin to run out of money by the middle of this year, risking a collapse on the battlefield. Financial aid from Washington dried up after US president Donald Trump returned to office, leaving European allies shouldering the majority of the costs of supporting Ukraine.
[ In missile-battered Kyiv, old and young find new ways to survive the cruel winterOpens in new window ]
The governments of Hungary, Slovakia and Czech Republic, who are sceptics of continuing EU aid to Kyiv, declined to back the €90 billion loan late last year. The other 24 EU states relied on emergency powers to move ahead on the plan without unanimous support.
The three central European countries will not be required to contribute towards any repayments or guarantees connected to the loan.
