Denmark gets Europe's Ukraine export guarantee scheme underway

LONDON, June 5 (Reuters) - Denmark has become the first country to formally join the European Union's new 300 million euro Ukraine export credit guarantee facility which supports European companies doing business with Ukrainian counterparts.
The deal with Danish export credit agency EIFO is the first of more than a dozen similar agreements expected in the next few weeks between EU lending arm the EIB Group, the European Commission and national agencies.
The overall facility is designed to back small and medium-sized firms which export to Ukraine, giving them protection if companies they deal with are impacted by the ongoing war with Russia.
According to the EU's Eurostat agency, exports from the EU to Ukraine jumped to nearly 43 billion euros ($49.11 billion) last year.
Up to 40 Danish companies are expected to benefit from the first agreement, while the likes of Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and some central and eastern European countries that export the most to Ukraine are expected to join soon.
The European Commission's Valdis Dombrovskis said the facility represented "a significant step forward in further integrating the EU and Ukrainian economies, which is a crucial element of Ukraine's (EU) accession process."
Kyiv's EU membership talks began last year, although a long and tough road lies ahead before it can join the bloc given the war with Russia.
Ukraine's First Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, who was in Washington on Wednesday to formally sign the high-profile minerals deal brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump, said the EU export support would help grow trade.
Marjut Falkstedt, head of the European Investment Fund which provides the guarantees for the new export facility, said Denmark's sign-up was part of significant efforts made to get the facility up and running within a year.
($1 = 0.8757 euros)

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Daily Mail​

25 minutes ago

• Daily Mail​

Car insurance payouts to keep rising after hitting record £11.7bn last year

UK motor claims inflation is set remain elevated over the next year after total payouts hit a record high in 2024, according to EY analysis. However, the group still expects rates paid by customers to fall thanks to a competitive market backdrop, thereby putting further pressure on insurers' margins. EY analysts forecast the average cost of motor insurance claims to rise by around 6 per cent in 2025 and 2026, with damage inflation staying high and bodily injury inflation within the 3 to 5 per cent long-term range. Motor claims hit a record £11.7billion in 2024, according to the Association of British Insurers, with the average claim up 13 per cent year-on-year at £4,900. The predicted increase comes despite a 'significant decline' in the frequency of claims, EY said. It credited this to better car safety, lower speed limits, workplace behaviour changes, and even a reluctance among motorists to make claims as a result of greater insurance costs in the UK. EY expects motor insurers' margins to hit breakeven levels this year before slipping into an underwriting loss of around 107 per cent in 2026 as rates lag behind claims inflation. A combined operating ratio (CoR) exceeding 100 indicates that insurance companies are making an underwriting loss, while a ratio below that figure denotes a profit. The UK motor insurance industry had a CoR of 97 per cent in 2024, despite paying out a record £11.7billion in claims. This was still a considerable improvement on the 113 per cent recorded the previous year when soaring claims, labour and parts costs outpaced the growth in premiums. New business rates in the UK car insurance sector shrank by 14 per cent to £757 last year, according to the Confused/WTW Motor premium index. It noted that the rates of decline had slowed from 7 per cent in the first quarter to 2.6 per cent in the following three months. WTW suggested this could be the result of greater consolidation in the UK motor insurance market. Aviva is likely to finalise the £3.7billion takeover of Direct Line Group, which is home to Churchill Insurance and vehicle recovery provider Green Flag, in July following approval from the UK's Competition and Markets Authority. Belgian insurer Ageas also agreed in April to acquire Esure from private equity giant Bain Capital in a £1.4billion deal that will create Britain's third-largest home and motor insurer.

Reuters

36 minutes ago

• Reuters

Apollo to provide $6 billion funding for UK's Hinkley point nuclear project, FT reports

June 20 (Reuters) - U.S. private equity group Apollo Global (APO.N), opens new tab will provide 4.5 billion pounds ($6.08 billion) in debt financing to support Britain's Hinkley Point nuclear project, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. Apollo declined to comment on the report, while EDF did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. ($1 = 0.7407 pounds)

Telegraph

38 minutes ago

• Telegraph

Trainline sues Transport Secretary over ‘secret' deal for state-owned rail operator

Trainline is suing Heidi Alexander, the Transport Secretary, over the alleged backdoor award of a £32m ticketing contract by state-owned operator LNER. LNER, which has been run by the Department for Transport (DfT) since 2018, recently extended a ticketing sales platform contract it uses without offering rivals such as Trainline the chance to bid for the 10-year deal. Trainline claims that the failure to seek alternative bids means that Ms Alexander and LNER ignored due process as well as the best interests of passengers and the taxpayer. It alleges that the publication of the award on the Government's procurement website on December 23 was also too opaque because it effectively buried the news during Christmas week, limiting the ability of other parties to respond. LNER awarded the contract for the central booking engine that supports its digital ticket sales to Australia's Vix Technology. Trainline has its own rival division providing a similar 'white label' service to train operators and would have expected to compete for the work had it been tendered. It is understood that the company, which has filed the claim at the Technology and Construction Court against LNER and the Transport Secretary, will claim that a direct award of the contract was not permissible under procurement law because the terms were being varied in scope, duration and beneficiaries. The terms of the award also mean that the ticketing platform used by LNER, which operates between London Kings Cross and Scotland via Leeds and Newcastle, could be extended across the rail network. Rail unions have pressed Labour to squeeze out third-party ticket bookers such as Trainline, with the RMT accusing the company of engaging in 'relentless profiteering.' While the Government plans to simplify fares and ticketing as part of its nationalisation of the railway, it has nevertheless said that there would still be a need for 'an innovative and competitive third-party retail market.' Trainline even hosted the launch of the nationalisation policy by Louise Haigh, the then-transport secretary, last year. Labour subsequently ruled out establishing a national website and app to promote cheaper fares in competition with the firm. However, it reversed that guidance in January to say that a plan to bring together the ticket websites of individual operators was now in the pipeline. Though the DfT maintained that private-sector retailers would be able to compete in an open and fair manner, shares of Trainline, which has 18m customers, have since fallen by almost one third.