German businesses in eastern Europe have called for Germany to play a leading role in the swift reconstruction of Ukraine, ahead of a forum hosted in Berlin.
The deputy chairman of the Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations (Ostausschuss der Deutschen Wirtschaft), Hans-Ulrich Engel, said initial efforts should be directed towards an efficient organization of emergency aid, for example, to rebuild destroyed infrastructure.
After that the focus should be on “targeted measures and suitable framework conditions for contributions to a reconstruction of the economy in Ukraine,’’ he said.
The German-Ukrainian Business Forum being held in the German capital on Monday is being opened by Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal.
Several ministers from Ukraine would travel to Berlin or join the meeting via video link, organizers said.
The post-war reconstruction of Ukraine would be a generational mission that required a strategy on the level of the Marshall Plan, Scholz and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on Sunday.
They made their pitches in an essay published online by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper.
Through the Marshall Plan, the United States financed reconstruction in European countries to the tune of billions of dollars between 1948 and 1952.
Europe has a special role to play in supporting Ukraine because the country is a candidate for EU membership, Scholz and von der Leyen wrote.
“The path of reconstruction is therefore also Ukraine’s path to the European Union.
