EU economic chief open to confiscation of frozen Russian assets - Bloomberg
Kyiv • UNN
European Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis has called for the confiscation of frozen Russian assets for Ukraine. The EU is reassessing the risks of such a move amid a possible reduction in US aid.
The European Union should consider taking bolder measures, such as confiscating frozen assets of the Russian central bank to compensate Ukraine, the bloc's top economic official Valdis Dombrovskis said, downplaying the risks of European Central Bank warnings, Bloomberg reports, UNN writes.
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"We certainly have to explore and work through all options," EU Economic Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said in an interview on Thursday. - "There is a well-established principle in international law that the aggressor is responsible for the damage it causes, so we have to find ways to make Russia pay for the damage it is doing to Ukraine.
The EU's diplomatic service is conducting new assessments of the financial and economic risk of confiscating Russian assets and transferring them to Ukraine, as Bloomberg previously reported. The discussion has gained new momentum as the bloc faces the risk of reducing or cutting off US aid to Kyiv after Donald Trump's inauguration.
So far, the EU and the G7 countries have used the profits generated from some $300 billion in sanctioned Russian assets to help Ukraine. Under the G7 plan, Kyiv's allies have approved a mechanism in which the profits will be used to support a 50 billion euro ($52.5 billion) loan package for Kyiv.
Euroclear Ltd., a Brussels-based clearing house, holds the largest tranche of Russia's immobilized deposits, totaling 180 billion euros. Valerie Urbain, its CEO, warned that asset confiscation would be risky.
Several member states, including Germany, Belgium, and Luxembourg, as well as the ECB, remain concerned that confiscation could violate the principle of state immunity under international law and affect the euro as a reserve currency and the financial stability of the euro area.
Dombrovskis argued that any option must be "legally sound" to withstand potential litigation, while reducing risks to financial stability.
"We have already taken an important step when we froze these assets, and then there was the question of financial stability or the consequences for the euro," he said. - "But we see that these risks to financial stability have not materialized.
