Germany supports EU plan to transfer frozen Russian assets to Ukraine - Politico
Kyiv • UNN
Germany supports the EU plan to transfer frozen Russian assets to Ukraine. Berlin is open to legally sound options for using 172 billion euros to support Ukraine.
Brussels has gained an influential ally in the controversial initiative to transfer billions of euros of frozen Russian state assets to Ukraine. This is reported by Politico, writes UNN.
Details
A senior German official told the publication that Berlin is open to "new, legally sound" plans to use 172 billion euros of frozen Russian funds to support Ukraine's military efforts, referring to the European Commission's idea.
This idea is to transfer billions of euros of Russian money, currently held in a Belgian depository, to Ukraine and replace the seized funds with bonds backed by the European Union.
By replacing frozen funds with debt instruments, the Commission hopes to avoid accusations of illegal confiscation of Russian property.
We are open to considering new, legally sound options for using frozen Russian assets
The publication noted that Berlin is now even pressuring other countries to support this plan ahead of an informal meeting of EU leaders in Copenhagen next Wednesday.
This will also be a key topic of discussion at the informal meeting of the European Council. Ukrainians need money to continue purchasing weapons, and there are not many options
The publication noted that this is a significant shift in Germany's policy, which previously opposed any innovative ideas for using Russian money.
The German government, on the other hand, seeks to use a "reparation loan" to provide military support to Ukraine, rather than to rebuild damaged buildings and infrastructure, three officials familiar with the negotiations told the publication.
Addition
The bulk of Russian assets are held by the Brussels-based financial company Euroclear and invested in Western government bonds, which have become cash upon maturity.
The European Commission proposed to use these funds - amounting to 172 billion euros - to finance a "reparation loan" to Ukraine, while leaving 13 billion euros of underlying assets untouched.