The Group of Seven member states want to use almost $300 billion of frozen Russian assets as collateral for loans to Ukraine. These are the reasons for the Europeans' thinking, Executive Vice President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis told reporters on Thursday. Reuters writes , UNN reports.
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Dombrovskis noted that various options are being considered and discussions are still ongoing. However, he expressed hope that the European Union, which holds the lion's share of frozen assets, would approve a separate instrument for the EU in the coming months to use profits or interest earned on assets to help Ukraine. He also added that politicians plan to make this decision in the first half of the year.
G7 financial officials on Wednesday said they are committed to helping Ukraine meet urgent short-term financing needs as it fights the Russian invasion, including using interest earned from frozen Russian assets.
The statement did not outline a specific plan for the assets, but indicated that they would "continue to work on all possible ways in which Russia's immobilized sovereign assets can be used to support Ukraine" with a view to presenting options to G7 leaders in June.
Dombrovskis refused to say which option would be preferable, but said that most likely the Russian assets would be used as collateral instead of being seized outright.
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The publication also noted that the day before, US Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said that G7 discussions on frozen Russian sovereign assets were still "in progress.
We are discussing a number of different options. One of them is confiscation, and the other is to provide collateral or even use the excess profits or interest from these assets to finance the loan.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Wednesday that the G7 should be able to use the interest of 3 to 5 billion euros a year generated from the assets.
A source familiar with the discussions told Reuters that there is still a lot of work to be done before the June summit of G7 leaders, where they will consider various options.