On 28 April, the Commission, on behalf of the EU, approved the disbursement of the second tranche of EUR 23 million under its Macro-Financial Assistance (MFA) to Georgia. The funds – EUR 10 million in grants and EUR 13 million in low-interest loans – will be disbursed in May 2017. This is the final instalment of the second of two MFA operations, each in an amount of EUR 46 million. The first one was fully disbursed in 2009-2010. The EU's MFA programme was intended to strengthen Georgia's external and budgetary positions and to support the government's agenda of economic, social and financial reforms. The policy programme attached to the EU's assistance, which was jointly agreed by Georgia and the EU in December 2014, included measures aimed at improving public finance management, fostering social inclusiveness and strengthening financial supervision. It also contained measures related to trade and competition policies, which aimed to help Georgia fully reap the benefits of the EU-Georgia Association Agreement, including a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area, which was signed in 2014, provisionally applied from September 2014 and entered into force in July 2016.