NDICI – GLOBAL EUROPE AS A NEW ARCHITECTURE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION’S FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE

Olena Chumachenko,

Ph.D. (History), Associate Professor,

Oleksandr Dovzhenko Hlukhiv National Pedagogical University, Hlukhiv, Ukraine

 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17721/2524-048X.2026.34.10

 

Abstract. The relevance of this study is determined by the need for a historical and analytical understanding of the transformation of the European Union’s external financing system in the early 21st century, taking place amid global political changes and the russian federation’s war against Ukraine. In this context, particular attention is given to the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument – Global Europe (NDICI–GE) as a stage in the evolution of the EU’s financial mechanisms and as part of the broader process of institutional development in European integration. The aim of the article is a historical and analytical study of the prerequisites for the formation, institutional and legal design, and practical implementation of NDICI–GE in the context of the evolution of the EU’s external assistance system. The methodological framework is based on the principles of historicism, systematization, and scientific objectivity. The historical-comparative method was used to reconstruct the stages of the development of EU financial instruments, the problem-chronological approach to highlight the sequence of their transformation, and the source analysis method to examine EU legal acts and official documents. The scientific novelty lies in a comprehensive historical and analytical understanding of NDICI–GE as a consistent stage in the institutional evolution of the EU’s external financing system. It is argued that its formation resulted from a long-term trend toward institutional consolidation and unification of EU financial mechanisms to overcome the fragmentation of the previous model, and it demonstrates the combination of continuity with institutional innovations within the new instrument. It is shown that after 2022, NDICI–GE functions as an integrative platform for financial support to Ukraine, coordinating different assistance mechanisms within a unified system. The study concludes that the creation of NDICI–GE represents a logical outcome of the evolution of the EU’s external financing instruments from multiple specialized programs to an integrated institutional model. NDICI–GE reflects a new stage in the development of the institutional architecture of EU external financing, ensuring the consolidation of previously autonomous instruments and structural coherence of assistance through the combination of geographic, thematic, crisis, and investment components. Key innovations include blended finance mechanisms and multiannual programming. Since 2022, NDICI–GE has played a coordinating role in Ukraine’s financial support, harmonizing short- and long-term assistance instruments within a single system.

Keywords: European Union, EU financial instruments, EU external assistance, NDICI–GE, institutional evolution, European Neighbourhood Policy, financial support to Ukraine.

 

Submitted 13.11.2025

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