Assessment of the European Union’s Macro-Financial Assistance (MFA) to Third Countries

The EC's Macro-Financial Assistance (MFA) is conceived to support, under exceptional circumstances and on an ad hoc basis, macroeconomic stabilisation and balance of payments of accession of candidate states and countries covered by the European neighbourhood policy. The study examines the EU's practice of MFA, including its financial and budgetary aspects, as well as the decision-making process behind it. Special emphasis is given to transparency, efficiency and the political conditionality underlying MFA. A chapter is dedicated to an overview of the beneficiary countries. The paper finds that the current evaluation system of the European Commission is flawed and considers the need for a separate regulation on MFA as well as applying a more coherent and consistent conditionality.