Several EU nations push to revive plan for using frozen Russian assets for Ukraine

A coalition of European Union member states is seeking to revive a plan to leverage frozen Russian state assets to provide financial support for Ukraine. Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain, and Poland are among the nations urging the European Commission to resume efforts to utilize over 200 billion euros in frozen Russian central bank funds.

This initiative faced a setback in the winter following resistance from Belgium, where the securities depository Euroclear holds a substantial amount of the frozen assets. According to the Financial Times, these countries intend to send a joint letter to the European Commission this Thursday. The letter will request the commission to advance work on alternative legal and technical solutions that could circumvent Belgium's opposition.

"Now is the time to start a new discussion about how we can make further use of Russia's frozen assets for the benefit of Ukraine and ourselves," stated Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard. She emphasized that while the EU is already using the proceeds from these frozen assets to finance a loan of up to 50 billion euros for Ukraine, and an additional 90 billion euro loan was agreed upon with security in the EU budget, this is insufficient.

Belgium has expressed concerns about potential legal challenges from Russia and the repercussions for financial markets if the principal of the Russian state assets were to be directly used. The current proposal focuses on finding ways to navigate these concerns while still channeling funds to support Ukraine's defense and reconstruction efforts.

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Now is the time to start a new discussion about how we can make further use of Russia's frozen assets for the benefit of Ukraine and ourselves.