Monitoring of the implementation of the IMF program and the Ukraine Plan
Successful cooperation with international partners is critically important for Ukraine. It is crucial for the financing of priority state budget expenditures (domestic revenues are used for security and defense). That is why the RRR4U Consortium continues to regularly monitor Ukraine’s compliance with the IMF financing program and the implementation of the Ukraine Plan, which is the basis for EU assistance under the Ukraine Facility.
Fulfillment of obligations under financial support programs is not needed by donors – they are needed by Ukraine to achieve economic stability and transition to growth and increase the welfare of Ukrainians. And it is also a way to gain trust from all international partners and foreign businesses.
IMF
At the end of March 2025, the IMF Executive Board is expected to make a decision on the seventh review of the Program. At the same time, one structural benchmark was implemented with a significant delay, and another – the cancellation of the Lozovyi amendments – was not implemented. That is, the revision of the Program was again ensured by the IMF’s flexibility.
Ukraine requested a reduction in the size of this tranche to preserve funds for next year. Thus, if the review is approved by the IMF Executive Board, Ukraine will receive around $0.4 billion instead of the previously planned $0.9 billion. The total funding under the programme will remain unchanged.
A key condition for the seventh review was the signing of a bill to increase excise taxes on tobacco products. The delay in signing resulted in the budget missing out on more than UAH 2 billion.
The seventh review may also introduce new structural benchmarks – new commitments by Ukraine. The RRR4U Consortium will continue to monitor their implementation.
During the eighth review, our progress on quantitative performance criteria and structural benchmarks as of the end of March 2025 will be assessed. Unfortunately, our progress so far cannot be considered satisfactory.
EU
The implementation of the Ukraine Plan is ongoing under the Ukraine Facility.
In March 2025, Ukraine received the fifth tranche of budget support from the EU under the Ukraine Facility. This was preceded by the timely fulfillment of the indicators of the Ukraine Plan in the fourth quarter of 2024. Ukraine has slowed down in meeting the indicators for the Q1 2025: traditionally, some of the indicators will be adopted in the last days of the quarter.
Ukraine’s Plan: the main points as of March 2025:
- The Council of the European Union has approved 3.5 billion EUR for Ukraine for fulfilling 13 Q4 2024 indicators;
- The European Commission has appointed members of the Audit Board to ensure the transparency and effectiveness of financial assistance under the Ukraine Facility;
- On March 26, the Ministry of Finance and the Audit Board signed a Memorandum of Cooperation;
- The European Commission has launched a Scoreboard on the implementation of the Ukraine Plan on its website.
SPECIAL TOPIC — Cancellation of Lozovyi’s “amendments”
What is “Lozovyi’s amendments”?
- “Lozovyi’s amendments” are a number of amendments to the Commercial Procedure, Civil Procedure, and Criminal Procedure Codes, as well as to the Code of Administrative Justice of Ukraine and other regulatory acts proposed by Member of Parliament Andriy Lozovyi.
- The set of amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine (CPC of Ukraine) came into force on March 16, 2018 and covered a wide range of procedural actions, including calculation of the pre-trial investigation period, admission of a lawyer during a search, appointment of expert examinations and closure of criminal proceedings if the pre-trial investigation period has expired after the person was served with a notice of suspicion.
- A significant part of “Lozovyi’s amendments” have long been cancelled. At the same time, some of them are still in effect. In December 2023, the Verkhovna Rada partially repealed the “Lozovyi`s amendments”, in particular, on January 1, 2024, the rules that completely cancelled the terms of pre-trial investigation before notifying a person of suspicion came into force.
- At present, the term “Lozovyi amendments” is used to refer to the amendments to the CPC of Ukraine regarding the establishment of pre-trial investigation terms, closure of criminal proceedings due to the expiration of the pre-trial investigation terms, and the procedure for extending the pre-trial investigation term.
You can view the previous monitors on the website RRR4U
RRR4U (Resilience, Reconstruction and Relief for Ukraine) is a consortium of four Ukrainian civil society organisations: Centre for Economic Strategy, Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting, Institute of Analytics and Advocacy and DiXi Group.
