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Macron Lobbies French Businesses to Help Rebuild Ukraine
(Bloomberg) -- President Emmanuel Macron is pushing French companies to take an active role in Ukraine’s reconstruction effort after international donors he convened pledged €1 billion ($1.1 billion) in emergency aid to help Ukrainians through the winter.
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Before the war started in February, “France was already an economic partner for Ukraine,” Macron said in Paris. “The war won’t put that into question — quite the contrary.”
The French leader hosted two conferences Tuesday to support Ukraine as Russia has intensified strikes on civilian infrastructure. The push comes after Macron upset allies with recent comments on the need not to humiliate Russia and to provide Moscow with security guarantees.
Around 700 French companies attended the economic conference, Macron said, including Electricite de France SA’s electricity distribution unit Enedis, French bank Societe Generale and Credit Agricole, and Ukraine’s utility companies Ukrenergo and Naftogaz.
Macron announced an agreement with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to provide guarantees that will allow to unlock €200 million of liquidities to Ukraine’s Naftogaz energy company and to help the rail network. France is also providing a €37.6 million loan for Ukraine to purchase rail material built by Germany’s Saarstahl AG in France, in addition to agreements with other private companies to provide bridges and cereals with state-backed guarantees worth €100 million and digital collaboration.
“Our response to Putin’s destruction is European reconstruction, and French reconstruction,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said. “It’s destroyed? We’ll build it back.”
Zelenskiy’s Appeal
So far, France has provided €1.2 billion of export guarantees and €400 million in state-backed loans for French companies taking part in the reconstruction. According to the French Chamber of Commerce, France is the sixth foreign investor and first foreign employer in Ukraine with 50,000 jobs.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who attended the conferences remotely, said his country needed €800 million worth of aid from the EU for its power sector and €1.5 billion to fix its energy grid, as close to 12 million Ukrainians remain without power in freezing temperatures.
Earlier Tuesday, during a separate conference about Ukraine hosted by Macron, international donors pledged a total of €1 billion for emergency help, going to energy infrastructure, health, food and water, the French president said. The priority, according to French officials, is to make sure infrastructure such as electricity and water networks don’t collapse.
Final Bill
Macron alone pledged an additional €76.5 million of humanitarian help, bringing the total to €200 million, including high-power electric generators and transformers. He said France has spent €151.5 million on support for Ukraine since the Russian invasion began in February.
The final bill will be much bigger, however. Ukraine’s economy will probably shrink by about a third this year, and Russia’s recent strikes against the country’s energy infrastructure pose further risks. Forecasts by the International Monetary Fund suggest gross domestic product could decline by as much as 5% next year.
The European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, also announced a new EU delivery of 800 power generators and energy saving light bulbs. A day earlier, the bloc reached a preliminary deal to unlock a Hungarian veto on an €18 billion support package for Ukraine after Budapest obtained a reduction in EU penalties over graft.
--With assistance from Maria Tadeo and Daryna Krasnolutska.
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