The member states of the European Union have been informed that they have the legal authority to temporarily attract at least €33.8 billion of assets of the Russian central bank for the reconstruction of Ukraine.
This is reported by Bloomberg with reference to its sources.
According to interlocutors of the publication, the legal service of the Council of Europe told diplomats that such a plan is possible if there is no complete expropriation of assets, and under certain conditions. One of the conditions is that the main amount of assets and interest will be returned to the Russians at some point.
Such a proposal is controversial and is at a preliminary stage of discussion, writes Bloomberg. European officials believe that such a step should be coordinated with the "Great Seven" countries.
The EU executive has warned that it will be difficult to make a decision until the extent of assets that can be used is known, and the first step will be to identify them. Some estimates indicate that the assets of the Russian Central Bank, frozen abroad, amount to $300 billion. European officials estimate that approximately €33.8 billion of this is on deposits in the EU, although this figure is not final.
The European Union is considering the possibility of pooling assets at the EU or international level in order to obtain profits that can be spent on rebuilding Ukraine, a task that, according to the World Bank, could cost at least $350 billion.
- In November 2022, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, proposed to create a special fund to compensate Ukraine for losses from the frozen assets of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation and the assets of private individuals, in particular, sanctioned Russian oligarchs. However, until now, European countries have not made decisions on the start of the confiscation of Russian property.
- Estonia was the first European country to start preparations for the confiscation of Russian assets. The representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Michkel Tamm, said that in January, the countryʼs government plans to present a legal plan for the seizure of assets.