§ Mr. MitchellTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is the approximate expenditure to date of the European Union in respect of the Partnership Agreement with the Ukraine; how much is budgeted for 2000; what(a) proposals and (b) reports concerning such expenditure have been compiled; and whether each of these has been made public. [105083]
§ Mr. VazThere is a wide range of Community and bilateral programmes which support the EU/Ukraine Partnership and Co-operation Agreement. The main Community programme is TACIS, from which over 600 million euro was committed between 1991–98. The TACIS 2000 budget for Ukraine has not yet been decided. Since 1991, Ukraine has also benefited from EU grants towards the closure of Chernobyl (210 million euro), EU macro-financial loans (565 million euro) and humanitarian aid (12 million euro). In addition EU member states have provided bilaterally some 2.5 billion euro in loans and grants between 1991 and 1997. The European Commission's proposals for TACIS spending appear in its Country Strategy Papers, which are not made public. Reports of TACIS expenditure are, however, published annually. An independent evaluation of TACIS in Ukraine was published in 1998.