The new Austrian Minister of Finance Markus Marterbauer has expressed support for the use of frozen assets of the Russian Central Bank to help Ukraine, but noted that his country will not be the first to take the initiative. This is reported by Bloomberg, writes UNN.
I fundamentally consider these discussions reasonable... If there is a joint decision, Austria will be part of it, but we will not take the initiative.
Marterbauer made this statement after a meeting of EU finance ministers last week, where they discussed options to increase funding for the rearmament of the European Union in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
In particular, Spanish Finance Minister Carlos Cuerpo proposed creating a new EU defense fund, which would be financed by contributions from member states, joint borrowing and the rescue fund of the European Stability Mechanism. The Spanish minister also proposed using part of the frozen assets of the Russian Central Bank in Europe worth 200 billion euros ($227 billion) to finance military projects for the benefit of Ukraine. So far, the EU has only used them to generate income.
Like Spain, Austria faces the problem of increasing defense spending. They should increase from 1% to 2% of GDP by 2032, simultaneously with a significant reduction in budget expenditures.