“The British government may unfreeze £8 billion of Russian assets to support Ukraine. The EU is considering similar steps.”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
Source: “European truth” with reference to The Times
Details: Along with £8bn from the UK, the EU is seeking to unfreeze €90bn of Russian assets it holds, mainly in Belgium, home to securities depository Euroclear. However, the Belgian government opposes the transfer of funds to Ukraine due to fears that it will become legally responsible for an amount equal to a third of its annual GDP.
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British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, along with France, Germany and the European Commission, are pushing for a change of approach, saying it is vital for countries to act together. A source in the British government said that the exact mechanism for unlocking £8 billion of Russian assets located in Britain and transferring them to Ukraine has not yet been determined.
“We need a coordinated plan to use these Russian sovereign assets to not only support Ukraine in the short term, but also to deliver this powerful message to Russia,” Cooper said.
Profits from frozen assets have already been used to finance Ukraine. The new plan is to use “cash balances” to finance Kyiv with a “reparation loan” for 2026 and 2027.
The alternative is for British and European taxpayers to find the funds to cover Ukraine’s €137 billion budget deficit over the next two years, as government borrowing costs soar and Europe’s budget deficits widen.
As “European Truth” reported, on December 3, the European Commission announced two solutionswhich will make it possible to cover Ukraine’s financial needs in 2026-2027: a “reparation loan” based on Russia’s frozen assets and joint EU borrowing on foreign markets.
On the same day, even before the announcement of the new proposal by the European Commission, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belgium, Maxim Prevost, said that it is categorically unacceptable.