The White House

Office of the Vice President

For Immediate Release
January 29, 2015

FACT SHEET: Promoting Prosperity, Security and Good Governance in Central America

Today, the Administration announced that the President will request an historic $1 billion as part of his Fiscal Year 2016 Budget to contribute to the evolution of an economically-integrated Central America that is fully democratic, provides greater economic opportunities to its people, promotes more accountable, transparent, and effective public institutions, and ensures the safety of its citizens.   

The President’s request aligns the resources necessary to help the leaders of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras implement systemic reforms that address the lack of economic opportunity, the absence of strong institutions, and the extreme levels of violence that have held the region back at a time of prosperity for the rest of the Western Hemisphere. 

While the United States is investing significant resources, the success of this effort will depend far more on the readiness of Central American governments to continue to demonstrate political will and undertake substantial political and economic commitments to bring about positive change in the region.  We are encouraged that the Central American governments – and the Northern Triangle countries in particular – have taken concrete actions to further this objective.  This includes developing their own Alliance for Prosperity Strategy – unveiled on November 14, 2014 at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) – that commits resources to advance strategic goals in sectors such as education, energy, tax regulation and business regulations.  They have also committed to promoting government accountability and reform and strengthening border management that will also focus on migration.  As agreed to at the IDB conference, Central America, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, international financial institutions, the private sector, civil society, and other international partners have committed to promote regional prosperity through a sustained, well-coordinated plan to address longstanding challenges to economic growth in the region. 

U.S. funding will support a whole-of-government approach to address three overarching lines of action: 1) Promoting prosperity and regional economic integration; 2) Enhancing security; and 3) Promoting improved governance. 

Prosperity and Regional Integration

The United States will provide over $400 million of the $1 billion to promote trade facilitation, promote transport and customs/border integration, promote more efficient and sustainable energy, reduce poverty, enhance workforce development, facilitate business development and help small businesses create jobs, link Central American and North American markets, and strengthen Central American regional institutions. 

Examples of current and planned activities include:

  • Agencies will provide the region with trade facilitation, trade capacity building, and technical support to promote efficient movement of goods across borders in a safe and secure framework, support integration of regional value chains, and strengthen competitiveness to grow trade and economic prosperity and work to improve workers’ rights and conditions.  The export of goods to the United States from CAFTA-DR countries increased 66.7 percent since 2005, totaling $30.1 billion in 2013.
  • The United States will continue to fund technical assistance to support electricity market integration, renewable energy development, power sector solvency, and resource planning to improve Central American citizens’ access to clean, affordable, and reliable electricity.  These efforts will help attract private investment in clean energy infrastructure and boost overall economic competitiveness. 
  • Bilateral technical and financial assistance will advance economic prosperity by reducing poverty, accelerating both business and rural development, improving education and workforce development, and strengthening resilience in the region.  These efforts will include support for creating business environments friendly to entrepreneurs and for job placement for at-risk youth to increase the resiliency of vulnerable communities as well as to provide alternatives to the illicit activities that contribute to insecurity and undermine effective governance.
  • The United States supports improved educational access and quality for under-served populations, including rural indigenous girls and boys in hundreds of rural schools, and expanded educational and vocational training opportunities for at-risk youth. 
  • Examples of additional complementary efforts as part of our whole-of government approach include:
    • Complementing our efforts, in September 2014, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) signed a $277 million Compact with El Salvador, designed to enhance the country’s competitiveness and productivity in international commerce through a set of interrelated projects in investment climate (including regulatory and institutional improvements), education, and logistical infrastructure. 
    • The Overseas Private Investment Corporation has significantly invested supporting development across the Northern Triangle and is standing by to provide investors and project developers with financing and risk mitigation tools to make investments in the Northern Triangle more attractive.  The U.S. Trade and Development Agency, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, is also supporting the planning and development of priority energy and transportation infrastructure projects in Central America. 

Enhanced Security

The United States will advance regional security efforts by providing over $300 million to improve community security, promote police reform, continue defense cooperation, and attack organized crime.  Examples of ongoing and future activities include:

  • Continuation of the Central America Regional Security Initiative (CARSI), providing for security projects such as model police precincts (MPPs) in Guatemala, El Salvador, and most recently, in Honduras.  MPP projects, which have shown success in targeted Central American neighborhoods, provide police training, facilitate community engagement, and prioritize the crimes of most concern to Central American citizens:  gang extortion, robbery, and domestic violence. 
  • Preventing violence through Municipal Crime Prevention Committees that identify crime “hot spots” and implement community-led plans to improve security; working with faith-based organizations to provide at-risk youth with life skills, job training, and recreation activities; supporting civic groups to reclaim gang-controlled public spaces and improve basic infrastructure, such as street lights; and providing services at domestic violence assistance centers.
  • Developing investigative and prosecutorial capacity to successfully prosecute cases through assessments, training, judicial cooperation and exchanges.  Agencies are working with local counterparts to advance professional responsibility policies and procedures, and enhance collaboration among all parts of the criminal justice system, including police, courts, and corrections.  
  • Providing assistance to build partnerships that professionalize and improve the competency, capability, and accountability of security institutions, especially in the fight against transnational organized crime.  This is accomplished through activities that include professional education, tactical and operational training and exercises, human rights programs and institutional reform activities. 

Improved Governance

Nearly $250 million will strengthen institutions and enable governments to more effectively address the social, economic, political, and security problems they face.  These resources will allow the United States to continue partnering with Central American governments as they make necessary reforms to their own institutions, and will draw on the expertise of the U.S. agencies and other stakeholders in the hemisphere to advance the reforms necessary to ensure the long-term effectiveness and impact of U.S. assistance.  Our focus is to help Central American countries improve revenue collection and public sector fiscal management, increase the role and impact of civil society on governance, strengthen the efficiency, accountability, and independence of judicial institutions, reinforce democratic institutions, and target corruption.  The following are examples of U.S. cooperation to improve governance capacity:

  • The United States will help national and local governments to improve management of public funds; strengthen rule-of-law institutions to better administer justice, ensure due process, and protect human rights; and to increase local resilience to issues that can contribute to migration, especially stresses on rural agriculture.
  • Technical and material support to national and regional civil society networks, including traditionally excluded groups and organization, to build capacity to serve as watchdogs and advocate around public policy issues.  This will include technology to increase the capacity to document corruption, build monitoring and reporting networks and improve digital security of civil society organizations and the media.
  • Supporting Central American governments to create a competent civil service workforce that provides executive branch continuity and services to citizens to and help develop and modify current practices in delivering government services to reduce opportunities for corruption and to comply with international standards. 
  • Complementing these efforts, in December 2014, the MCC finalized a Threshold Program with Guatemala which will focus on policy and institutional reforms to improve the quality of secondary education, including technical and vocational education and training.  The program is expected to also help the government to mobilize additional revenues through more efficient tax administration and public-private partnerships.  In 2013, MCC and the Government of Honduras signed a $15.6 million Threshold Program Agreement designed to promote good governance practices in Honduras. 

The White House

Office of the Vice President

For Immediate Release
January 29, 2015

Op-Ed by the Vice President on the Administration’s Budget Request to Assist Countries in Central America

In an exclusive op-ed published in The New York Times, the Vice President announces the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2016 budget request for $1 billion aimed at assisting countries in Central America. The op-ed can be found HERE.

A Plan for Central America

By Vice President Joe Biden

As we were reminded last summer when thousands of unaccompanied children showed up on our southwestern border, the security and prosperity of Central America are inextricably linked with our own.

The economies of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras remain bogged down as the rest of the Americas surge forward. Inadequate education, institutional corruption, rampant crime and a lack of investment are holding these countries back. Six million young Central Americans are to enter the labor force in the next decade. If opportunity isn’t there for them, the entire Western Hemisphere will feel the consequences.

Confronting these challenges requires nothing less than systemic change, which we in the United States have a direct interest in helping to bring about. Toward that end, on Monday, President Obama will request from Congress $1 billion to help Central America’s leaders make the difficult reforms and investments required to address the region’s interlocking security, governance and economic challenges. That is almost three times what we generally have provided to Central America.

Last summer, as our countries worked together to stem the dangerous surge in migration, the leaders of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras asked for additional assistance to change the climate of endemic violence and poverty that has held them back. In June, I made it clear to these leaders that the United States was ready to support them — provided they took ownership of the problem. Mr. Obama drove home this point when the leaders visited Washington in July.

And they responded. Honduras signed an agreement with Transparency International to combat corruption. Guatemala has removed senior officials suspected of corruption and aiding human trafficking. El Salvador passed a law providing new protections for investors. Working with the Inter-American Development Bank, these three countries forged a joint plan for economic and political reforms, an alliance for prosperity.

These leaders acknowledge that an enormous effort is required. We have agreed to intensify our work together in three areas.

First, security makes everything else possible. We can help stabilize neighborhoods through community-based policing, and eradicate transnational criminal networks that have turned Central America into a hotbed for drug smuggling, human trafficking and financial crime. Some communities in Guatemala and El Salvador are already seeing the benefit of United States-sponsored programs on community policing, specialized police training and youth centers similar to Boys and Girls Clubs in the United States. As I learned in crafting the 1994 United States crime bill, these programs can reduce crime.

Second, good governance begets the jobs and investment that Central America needs. Today, court systems, government contracting and tax collection are not widely perceived as transparent and fair. These countries have among the lowest effective tax rates in the hemisphere. To attract the investments required for real and lasting progress, they must collect and manage revenues effectively and transparently.

Third, there is not enough government money, even with assistance from the United States and the international community, to address the scale of the economic need. Central American economies can grow only by attracting international investment and making a more compelling case to their citizens to invest at home. That requires clear rules and regulations; protections for investors; courts that can be trusted to adjudicate disputes fairly; serious efforts to root out corruption; protections for intellectual property; and transparency to ensure that international assistance is spent accountably and effectively.

We are ready to work with international financial institutions and the private sector to help these countries train their young people, make it easier to start a business, and ensure that local enterprises get the most out of existing free trade agreements with the United States.

The challenges ahead are formidable. But if the political will exists, there is no reason Central America cannot become the next great success story of the Western Hemisphere.

The region has seen this sort of transformation before. In 1999, we initiated Plan Colombia to combat drug trafficking, grinding poverty and institutional corruption — combined with a vicious insurgency — that threatened to turn Colombia into a failed state. Fifteen years later, Colombia is a nation transformed. As one of the architects of Plan Colombia in the United States Senate, I saw that the key ingredient was political will on the ground. Colombia benefited from leaders who had the courage to make significant changes regarding security, governance and human rights. Elites agreed to pay higher taxes. The Colombian government cleaned up its courts, vetted its police force and reformed its rules of commerce to open up its economy. The United States invested $9 billion over the course of Plan Colombia, with $700 million the first year. But our figures show that Colombia outspent us four to one.

The cost of investing now in a secure and prosperous Central America is modest compared with the costs of letting violence and poverty fester.

Mr. Obama has asked me to lead this new effort. For the first time, we can envision and work toward having the Americas be overwhelmingly middle class, democratic and secure.

That is why we are asking Congress to work with us. Together, we can help Central America become an embodiment of the Western Hemisphere’s remarkable rise — not an exception to it.

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
January 29, 2015

Statement from NSC Spokesperson Bernadette Meehan on the White House Forum on Combating Human Trafficking in Supply Chains

Today, as we commemorate National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, the White House hosted a forum dedicated to combating human trafficking in supply chains. The event brought together leaders from the private sector, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and the federal government to discuss the prevention and elimination of trafficking-related activities in federal contracts and in private sector supply chains.

Today’s forum was part of President Obama’s sustained commitment to combat human trafficking.  This year, the Administration will be focusing in particular on human trafficking issues in supply chains.  The President spoke to this issue earlier this week at the U.S.-India Business Council Summit, where he stressed the need to “keep striving to protect the rights of our workers; to make sure that our supply chains are sourced responsibly.”

As part of this effort, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council (FAR Council) published updates today to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) as required by the President’s Executive Order “Strengthening Protections Against Trafficking in Persons in Federal Contracts.”  These updates establish a number of new safeguards largely modeled on successful private sector practices, and reflect public input from federal contractors, academia, NGOs, and other stakeholders.  The new FAR rule prohibits federal contractors and subcontractors from charging employees recruitment fees or using misleading or fraudulent recruitment practices, and requires contractors and subcontractors performing work over $500,000 outside the United States to develop and maintain a trafficking compliance plan and to certify that to the best of their knowledge neither they nor any of their subcontractors has engaged in trafficking-related activities, among other things.  The Administration will continue to work together with the private sector, civil society, and government partners to fight to end human trafficking in all its forms, wherever it occurs.

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
January 29, 2015

Presidential Nominations Sent to the Senate

NOMINATIONS SENT TO THE SENATE:

Manson K. Brown, of the District of Columbia, to be an Assistant Secretary of Commerce, vice Kathryn D. Sullivan, resigned.

William P. Doyle, of Pennsylvania, to be a Federal Maritime Commissioner for a term expiring June 30, 2018.  (Reappointment)

Gentry O. Smith, of North Carolina, a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, to be Director of the Office of Foreign Missions, and to have the rank of Ambassador during his tenure of service, vice Eric J. Boswell, resigned.

Janet L. Yellen, of California, to be United States Alternate Governor of the International Monetary Fund for a term of five years, vice Ben S. Bernanke, term expired.

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
January 29, 2015

Statement by the President on the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission Report

I want to thank the members of the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission for their comprehensive and thorough review of the military compensation and retirement systems, and their considered recommendations.   In September 2013 I asked the Commission to focus on protecting the long-term viability of the All-Volunteer Force, improving quality-of-life for servicemembers and their families, and ensuring the fiscal sustainability of the compensation and retirement systems.  Our men and women in uniform and their families deserve nothing less.

The Commission’s report includes a number of specific proposals that I will review closely over the coming weeks, in consultation with our senior civilian and military leadership. I look forward to hearing their views and working with Congress to strengthen and modernize our military compensation and retirement systems.

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
January 29, 2015

FACT SHEET: Administration and California Partner to Drive Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency in Multifamily Housing

The Obama Administration is committed to taking responsible steps to address climate change, promote clean energy, and help ensure a cleaner, more stable environment for future generations. That is why, today, Secretary Castro, of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and Governor Brown of California are announcing a number of actions to expand financing for energy efficiency and solar energy in multifamily housing. Today’s actions also set us on a track to reach the President’s goal of installing 100 megawatts of renewable energy across federally subsidized housing by 2020.

In the United States, about a quarter of households live in multifamily housing units, including more than 3 million units in California alone. Improving the energy efficiency of these buildings nationwide by 20 percent would save nearly $7 billion in energy costs each year and cut 350 million tons of carbon pollution in a decade. Across the country, affordable housing leaders and service providers are also stepping up to deploy solar energy on affordable multifamily properties; because solar makes economic sense for them, brings a boost to struggling communities and families, and is something that works now. To continue to reinforce American leadership in deploying clean energy and cutting energy waste while creating jobs and reducing carbon pollution, the Administration and California are partnering to announce the following actions:

Unlocking Property-Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Financing for Multifamily Housing in California: PACE is an innovative mechanism for financing energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements. Commercial PACE programs have the potential to provide a robust source of capital to accelerate renewable energy and energy and water efficiency retrofits in multifamily housing, making the existing multifamily stock more affordable to renters with low incomes and saving money for consumers and taxpayers.  To remove existing barriers and accelerate the use of PACE financing for multifamily housing, today:

  • Governor Brown is establishing a California Multifamily PACE Pilot in partnership with the MacArthur Foundation. The Pilot will enable PACE financing for certain multifamily properties, including specific properties within HUD, the California Department of Housing and Community Development, and the California Housing Finance Agency’s portfolios, opening up financing to an entire segment of commercial PACE projects.
  • Secretary Castro is issuing guidance clarifying the circumstances under which HUD can approve PACE financing on HUD-assisted and-insured housing in California.
  • The U.S. Department of Energy is committing to work with the State of California to design and undertake a study assessing the performance of California’s PACE program as data becomes available.

Driving On-Bill Repayment in Affordable Multifamily Properties in California: HUD is committing to support the State of California in creating an innovative California Master-Metered Multifamily Finance Pilot Project. The Pilot will enhance affordable multifamily properties’, which have a substantial majority of a property's energy consumption billed through a common meter, access to upfront capital for financing energy efficiency improvements, on affordable terms and time frames, and which are repaid through the master meter utility bill. The $3 million program of technical assistance and credit support may include a loan loss reserve and/or a debt-service reserve fund. ‎The pilot is intended to inform project performance and repayment experience while managing finance risk perception.

Engaging Philanthropy and the Financial Sector to Support Renewable Energy in Affordable Housing: To set us down this path, today, we are announcing:

  • The White House and HUD will host a roundtable on February 19 with leaders from the finance and philanthropic communities to discuss opportunities to enhance solar financing for affordable housing.
  • Building on $200 million invested on multifamily preservation projects, the MacArthur Foundation is committing to make at least $10 million in impact investments to create and expand the California PACE and On-Bill Pilots, and explore other innovations, including the use of Pay for Success.

Empowering Communities to Deploy Solar: Today, the Department of Energy is awarding more than $14 million for 15 projects that will develop plans, streamline deployment and launch innovative programs to spur solar market growth in numerous communities across the U.S.  The projects take a variety of approaches to develop actionable strategic plans to promote deployment at residential, community and commercial scales—from using local financing mechanisms, such as commercial PACE type projects to integrating solar energy generation into communities’ emergency response plans. Ultimately, the case studies and lessons learned from these projects will provide similar communities with examples that can be replicated—an important step towards making solar deployment faster, easier, and cheaper across the country. The awardees include not-for-profits, utilities, industry associations, universities, and state and local jurisdictions in California, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Utah, Virginia, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Washington, D.C.

Announcing New Commitments to Advance Energy Efficiency Investments in Multifamily Housing: In February 2011, President Obama launched the Better Buildings Challenge to help American commercial, industrial, and multifamily buildings become at least 20 percent more energy efficient by 2020. More than 250 diverse organizations, representing over 3 billion square feet, 600 manufacturing plants, and more than $2 billion in energy efficiency financing have stepped up to the President’s Challenge, including more than 85 new multifamily partners since the Challenge was expanded to multifamily housing. Since the Better Building Challenge began, partners are on track to meet the 2020 goal and on average, are cutting energy use by 2.5 percent each year, saving 36 trillion BTUs and $300 million. Today, responding to the President’s call to action on energy efficiency 6 new multifamily housing authorities and owners are announcing that they are joining the President’s Better Buildings Challenge, committing to improving the energy efficiency of more than 5.5 million square feet of additional floor space, an area the size of more than 115 football fields, by at least 20 percent in the next decade:

  • AHEAD, Inc., Littleton, NH
  • Gragg Cardona Partners, Washington, DC
  • Housing Authority of the Birmingham District, Birmingham, AL
  • Newark Housing Authority, Newark, NJ
  • The DeBruler Co., Libertyville, IL
  • Windsor Locks Housing Authority, Windsor Locks, CT.

The Administration is also calling on Section 202 Project Rental Assistance Contract (PRAC) properties serving elderly and disabled Californians to take advantage of the PRAC Shared Savings incentive HUD released in September 2014. The incentive allows owners to utilize realized utility bill savings to make needed energy and water improvements at their property as part of the Better Buildings Challenge.

Making Energy Data More Accessible For Multifamily Housing Owners: Better information helps building owners and residents understand when there are opportunities to reduce energy consumption, which saves money for tenants, owners and taxpayers.  HUD spends approximately $6.4 billion annually on utility costs for affordable housing properties and households, so improving access to utility data for owners and tenants is a high priority. As part of HUD’s work on data access, HUD will be publishing guidance that standardizes the approach owners and performance based contract administrators use to appropriately assess the utility subsidy levels needed to offset tenant paid utilities.  In November, Secretary Castro issued a call to utilities to work with HUD as well as regulators, property owners, and other stakeholders across the country to facilitate better processes for building owners to access utility usage and expense information for their properties. Today, California is responding to Secretary Castro’s call by announcing it will obtain and ensure owner access to energy usage data, with appropriate privacy protections, for multi-family buildings and set data standardization and benchmarking efforts to ensure the data that is collected in a way that is accessible and can be used to track progress towards achieving their energy and climate goals.

TODAY’S ANNOUNCEMENTS BUILD ON PROGRESS TO DEPLOY RENEWABLE ENERGY AND PROMOTE ENERGY EFFICIENCY

In the State of the Union, the President stated that last year, we installed as much solar every three weeks as we did in all of 2008. In 2013 alone, the price of commercial and residential solar declined by more than 12 percent. This is driving more and more Americans to install solar panels at their homes and businesses, and is supporting tens of thousands of solar jobs across the country. We are also making progress cutting energy waste. Since 2009, the U.S. Department of Energy has already put in place appliance efficiency standards that will save American consumers nearly $480 billion on their utility bills through 2030.

In January, Governor Brown set an ambitious goal for California to generate 50 percent of its electricity from renewable energy by 2050. The actions announced today are consistent with that goal and build on a solid commitment to deploy renewable energy and promote energy efficiency statewide. In July 2014, Governor Brown allocated $75 million cap-and-trade proceeds for weatherization and renewable energy. A proportion of these funds will assist in the installation of energy efficiency and renewable energy projects in low income housing units within disadvantaged communities.

The White House

Office of the Vice President

For Immediate Release
January 28, 2015

Readout of the Vice President's Call with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko

Vice President Joe Biden spoke today with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. The two leaders discussed the continued attacks in eastern Ukraine by Russian-backed separatists and the heavy toll that the Russian-backed offensive in the east was having on Ukraine's civilian population. The Vice President noted that as long as Russia continues its blatant disregard of its obligations under the Minsk agreements, the costs for Russia will continue to rise.

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
January 28, 2015

Readout of the President’s Call with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of Greece

The President spoke with Prime Minister Tsipras today to congratulate him on his recent election victory. The President noted that the United States, as a longstanding friend and ally, looks forward to working closely with the new Greek government to help Greece return to a path of long-term prosperity.  The two leaders also reviewed close cooperation between Greece and the United States on issues of European security and counterterrorism.  

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
January 28, 2015

Statement by NSC Spokesperson Bernadette Meehan on Lisa O. Monaco’s Meeting with French Minister of the Interior Bernard Cazeneuve

Statement by NSC Spokesperson Bernadette Meehan on Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Lisa O. Monaco’s Meeting with French Minister of the Interior Bernard Cazeneuve

Today, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Lisa Monaco concluded a series of meetings with French security officials to discuss way to strengthen counterterrorism cooperation in the wake of the tragic terrorist attacks in Paris earlier this month. During her meeting with French Minister of the Interior Bernard Cazeneuve, the two discussed opportunities to enhance strong and ongoing U.S.-French cooperation to disrupt terror plots and prevent future attacks. Ms. Monaco reviewed information from U.S. law enforcement and intelligence channels that has been shared with French authorities, and Minister Cazeneuve gave an overview of the attacks. Minister Cazeneuve thanked Ms. Monaco for unwavering U.S. support to France in the aftermath of the attacks, expressing appreciation for intelligence and law enforcement cooperation, President Obama’s strong statements of support, calls to President Hollande on January 7 and 20, and the President’s visit to the French Embassy in Washington, D.C. on January 8 immediately following the attack. Ms. Monaco reiterated that the United States will continue to support France in its investigation as French authorities work to identify, apprehend, and bring to justice those who helped plan or enable these attacks. They also discussed governmental responses in addressing the full life cycle of radicalization and programs to prevent violent extremism.

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
January 27, 2015

Readout of the President’s Call with Chancellor Merkel of Germany

The President spoke today with Chancellor Merkel of Germany regarding developments in Ukraine.  The two leaders expressed concern about the significant increase in violence in eastern Ukraine and Russia’s materiel support for the separatists and its failure to fulfill its commitment under the Minsk Agreement, and they agreed on the need to hold Russia accountable for its actions.  They also agreed on the importance of finalizing a robust package of financial support for Ukraine to enable it to stabilize its economy as it continues to implement reforms that will lay the groundwork for a return to growth and prosperity.