The European Commission wants to send more financial aid to Ukraine – this time worth the equivalent of 15 billion euros. It proposes taking the money from Russian assets frozen or seized under sanctions, the Financial Times reports.
– It’s important to look at how we can use Russian immobilised assets and proceeds from those immobilised assets to support Ukraine, said Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Commission’s trade commissioner.
The proposal to take Russian money seized as a result of EU sanctions and give it to Ukraine has been discussed for some time – but several member states and the European Central Bank have criticized such a decision on both legal and economic grounds.
“Brussels will propose on Tuesday to ringfence profits generated from Russia’s frozen assets in the EU, aiming to eventually skim off up to EUR 15 billion for Ukraine’s benefit”, the paper writes.
According to the proposal, the proceeds from the Russian Central Bank’s assets will be used for this purpose. The profits would be placed in a separate account and then transferred to the “regular” EU budget to be relabeled as aid to Ukraine, according to the proposal.
Three billion euros a year are expected to be generated in this way – or a total of 15 billion euros between 2023 and 2027, depending on the interest rate. According to the paper, the proposal needs the unanimous support of all EU countries and another period of detailed planning before the money can be transferred to Kiev.
