The EU has made progress on the issue of a reparations loan for Ukraine and agreed on changes to keep Russian assets frozen. This was reported on the social network "X" by The Wall Street Journal journalist Laurence Norman, according to UNN.
Details
The first piece of the reparations loan puzzle has been assembled. Member states have agreed on an amendment to Article 122, which will significantly facilitate the maintenance of sanctions freezing assets.
He added that Hungary and Slovakia opposed this move and the initiation of a written procedure to approve this decision.
At the same time, Belgium did not object to the initiation of a written procedure to formalize the decision, Laurence Norman clarified.
Context
At next week's EU summit, "important discussions" will be held, with Ukraine and security in Europe being one of the priority issues. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to participate, as announced by European Council President António Costa, who called the main priority of the meeting to ensure "important decisions that need to be made, particularly regarding the financing of Ukraine."
Two options are proposed - either a "reparations loan" using frozen Russian assets, which Belgium, where most of these funds are held, opposes due to fears of Moscow's retaliation, or EU borrowing, which also faces resistance due to the burden on national budgets.
According to the IMF's assessment, Ukraine's budget deficit will reach 135 billion euros in the next two years.