Head of EU diplomacy Josep Borrell expects that EU leaders, following the summit, will instruct ministers to approve the proposal to use Russian assets to finance Kyiv.
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“I, together with the European Commission, made a proposal, now the task of the EU Council is to consider it… I hope that the leaders will instruct the ministers to make a decision as soon as possible,” he said before the summit.
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The day before, the European Commission and the head of European diplomacy presented to the EU countries their proposal to use income from the frozen assets of the Russian Central Bank for military assistance to Ukraine. In particular, in 2024, Brussels plans to spend 90% of the revenue received on arms supplies to Kyiv.
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The EU and G7 countries froze almost half of Russian foreign exchange reserves amounting to about 300 billion euros. About 200 billion euros are in the EU, mainly in the accounts of the Belgian Euroclear – one of the world’s largest settlement and clearing systems. The EU is discussing ways to use frozen assets of the Russian Federation to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine.
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The European Central Bank warned that this could pose reputational risks for the European currency in the long term, and called for “looking beyond this isolated conflict” and looking for other ways to finance Kyiv.
