EU Should Tap €80 Billion Rescue Fund to Help Ukraine, Rehn Says

  • European Stability Mechanism could serve as a “Plan B”
  • US lawmakers abandoned efforts to reach deal on aid this year

Olli Rehn

Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
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The European Union should prepare to tap a little-used €80 billion ($88 billion) rescue fund to support Ukraine’s war against Russia as the flow of money from both sides of the Atlantic threatens to dry up, according to Finland’s Olli Rehn.

Set up on the Finnish central banker’s watch to provide loans to distressed euro-area countries when he was EU economic affairs commissioner, the European Stability Mechanism could be at the center of a multi-year “Plan B” to assist Kyiv, he said.