At the G7 virtual summit on Sunday, US President Joe Biden again raised the topic of using Russian assets frozen in Europe for the needs of Ukraine; the EU still has doubts about this initiative.
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The “pressure of the Americans” was also supported by the British side, but the issue of using Russian funds in the final communiqué was reflected only in the “general promise to increase efforts to study the technical aspects” of such a step.
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Berlin and Paris, as well as the European Commission and the ECB, still have strong reservations about the confiscation of Russian money, since a precedent of this type, in addition to complex legal consequences, could have consequences for the attractiveness of the eurozone.
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It should be noted that income from the placement of Russian assets exceeds 10 billion euros per year. Earlier, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said that the EU had already initiated legal steps to use these revenues.
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The leaders of the G7 countries said in a summit communique the day before that Russian sovereign assets will not be unfrozen until Moscow pays “compensation” to Kyiv.
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G7 ministers are tasked with providing an update ahead of the Puglia summit on the possibilities of using frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine in accordance with European legal systems and international law.
