EU wants to revive a plan to use frozen Russian assets for Ukraine – FT
Kyiv • UNN
Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain and Poland, among others, are calling on the European Commission to resume work on using more than €200 billion in Russian assets. Belgium fears legal and financial risks.
EU countries, including Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain and Poland, are calling on Brussels to resume efforts to use frozen Russian sovereign assets to finance Ukraine "in response to concerns that Kyiv will face a new funding crisis," the Financial Times reports, UNN writes.
Details
Plans to finance Ukraine using more than €200 billion in Russian central bank assets held in the EU under sanctions collapsed last winter, as Belgium, where most of these assets are located, blocked the initiative, the publication notes.
"But a letter from a coalition of states to the European Commission calls on the EU executive to resume work on the concept," according to four people familiar with the document, and "requests clarification on any progress in alternative legal and technical frameworks that could provide a solution to Belgium's veto."
"Now is the right time to start a new discussion on how we can continue to use Russia's frozen assets for the benefit of Ukraine and ourselves," said Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard. "It is a fair and sensible way to ensure that Ukraine can defend itself and all of Europe," she said.
One source said it was "a call for the European Commission to carry out the technical work" to use the assets and ease Kyiv's budgetary needs. "The letter is expected to be sent on Thursday," the publication writes.
"The €90 billion loan is a manifestation of the EU's commitment to supporting Ukraine, but it is clearly insufficient," Stenergard said.
"We [need to] make sure that not just one or two member states bear responsibility for this," said a person familiar with the document.
In December, EU countries agreed to "continue work on ... creating a reparations loan based on cash balances linked to Russia's blocked assets." But there has been no communication on the issue since then, so countries are now requesting a progress report, sources said.
Belgium blocked the plan last year over concerns that it would have to assume responsibility for any repayment of the assets in the event of legal challenges from Russia.
"No one has yet proposed a new offer that would not face the same political barriers that existed in December," said an EU official familiar with the internal discussions. "We do not have a magic white rabbit to pull out of a hat," he added.
"But we can experiment with and fine-tune the same legal proposals, and if the political environment changes, perhaps they will be adopted," they added.
Belgium still has the same concerns as last year, fearing retaliatory legal action from Russia and warning of risks to financial markets from touching sovereign assets, the publication writes.
"Nothing has changed since the debates and the disaster last time," one source said.
The call to return to the proposal concerning immobilized assets comes amid intensifying debates over the size and financing of the EU's next seven-year joint budget. Some diplomats suggested that additional funding for Ukraine could become part of these discussions and increase pressure on countries to find alternative sources of cash.
Euroclear declined to comment, the publication writes.