The EU tabled a plan on Friday to make it easier for Ukrainian refugees to access EU currency given that many banks across Europe refuse their local hryvnia banknotes.
The Ukrainian economy is deeply disrupted by the war campaign, forcing the central bank in Kyiv to limit the exchangeability of its hryvnia currency in order to preserve its reserve of dollars and euros.
Banks across the 27 EU nations have shown reluctance to accept hryvnia from the millions of refugees who have entered the European Union, afraid of being refused the transaction by the central bank in Kyiv.
To answer the problem, Poland and other member states have set up schemes to guarantee a level of exchange and the European Commission in Brussels is recommending that the schemes are made uniform across the bloc.
“The schemes should provide for maximum limits of 10,000 hryvnias per person (about 300 euros, $330), without charges, at the official exchange rate as published by the National Bank of Ukraine,” a commission statement said.
The scheme, which would work in cooperation with Ukraine’s central bank, would last an initial three months and a network of banks across the bloc would take part.
The plan is a recommendation by the EU executive to the member states and will be discussed at a meeting of EU ministers on Tuesday.
