The legal mechanism for attracting and utilising European Investment Bank credit resources in Ukraine’s agricultural sector: The case of the “Main Loan for Agriculture – Ukraine” project
Abstract
The aim of the study was to identify the structure and characteristics of the legal mechanism for attracting, allocating, utilising and monitoring EIB credit resources in Ukraine’s agricultural sector. The methods applied included the systemic-structural, formal-legal, formal-logical and problem-oriented legal method, as well as methods of classification, systematisation, documentary analysis of official financial and control materials, normative reconstruction, legal generalisation and conceptual modelling. It has been established that the legal mechanism for the attracting and utilising of European Investment Bank credit resources in Ukraine has a multi-level structure and combines EU law, international treaty obligations, national legislation, the Bank’s institutional documents and contractual instruments. The multi-level nature of this mechanism ensures the consistent specification of the terms of international financing and their transformation into the rights and obligations of national participants. The European Investment Bank’s requirements do not automatically become binding on financial intermediaries and final beneficiaries, but rather as a result of their proper incorporation into financial and contractual documentation; the legal consequences of breaches depend on the level of the legal relationship and the relevant legal basis. It has been demonstrated that a change to the original intended use of loan funds in exceptional circumstances is possible provided that the international financial obligations are amended by mutual agreement and this is duly formalised within the national legal mechanism. Control over the use of funds is multi-level and combines contractual monitoring, national control procedures and the institutional requirements of the European Investment Bank. The legal mechanism examined takes the form of a cascading contractual implementation of international financing conditions, whereby the relevant requirements are progressively specified at different levels of legal relations, whilst control and the legal consequences of breaches are differentiated according to their legal nature and the grounds for their application. The practical significance of the findings lies in their potential use by public authorities to improve on-lending and monitoring; by participating banks to verify sub-projects and draft contracts; and by final beneficiaries to determine their obligations and the consequences of breaching them