European Parliament
Sergio Paolo Francesco Silvestris  (PPE ),
in writing.
(IT)
The European Union’s macro-financial assistance (MFA), launched in 1990 to grant financial assistance to third countries experiencing short-term balance of payments difficulties, has so far approved 55 decisions benefiting 23 countries, amounting to EUR 7.2 billion in the form of grants, loans or a combination of the two. This vote seeks to achieve the following objectives: to create a formal legal instrument for MFAs to third countries; to introduce quicker, more efficient and streamlined decision making for individual MFA operations; to agree rules and conditions among the EU institutions; to update and clarify some of the rules, most notably on the geographical scope of MFA; and to align decision making for MFA with other external financial assistance instruments.

