The scheme would force Belgium-based Euroclear to fund a new \u2018reparations\u2019 loan for Ukraine using frozen Russian money<\/p>\n
The EU will press ahead with its plan to seize Russia\u2019s immobilized central bank assets to arm Ukraine, brushing aside objections from Belgium, which hosts most of the funds.
\nEuropean Commission President Ursula von der Leyen issued the statement on Wednesday, outlining a proposal to provide Kiev with \u20ac90 billion over the next two years.
\nThe Commission has put forward two financing options. One is EU-level borrowing in which funds would be raised in capital markets backed by the bloc\u2019s budget. This proposal requires unanimity, making it unlikely to pass.
\nThe other is the long-debated \u201creparations loan,\u201d which would require financial institutions holding immobilized Russian cash balances to transfer those funds to a new loan instrument for Kiev. Under the mechanism, Ukraine would only be expected to repay the loan if and when Moscow pays reparations. This option only requires a qualified majority, making it more likely to pass.
\nBelgium, where Euroclear, the clearing house holding most of the frozen Russian reserves, is headquartered, has mounted the strongest resistance to the latter plan. It has warned repeatedly that the scheme carries serious financial and legal risks and has demanded that EU partners share responsibility for any fallout.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Cashing in on war: Why stealing Russia\u2019s assets actually makes things worse for the EU<\/p>\n
Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot has called the \u201creparations loan\u201d the \u201cworst of all\u201d available options, accusing the European Commission of pushing ahead without addressing Belgium\u2019s concerns. Prime Minister Bart De Wever has also condemned the plan, describing it as \u201ca complete illusion\u201d to believe that Kiev could defeat Moscow and force it to pay reparations.
\nVon der Leyen has insisted, however, that the Commission \u201clistened very carefully\u201d to Belgium\u2019s objections and \u201ctook almost all of them into account.\u201d
\nThe measure can advance over Belgium\u2019s opposition because it falls under policy areas decided by qualified majority voting, which only requires backing from 15 member states rather than all 27. This prevents any single government from vetoing the initiative.
\nRussia has denounced any use of its sovereign assets as outright theft and warned that any seizure of its assets would trigger far-reaching legal and retaliatory consequences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The scheme would force Belgium-based Euroclear to fund a new \u2018reparations\u2019 loan for Ukraine using frozen Russian money The EU will press ahead with its plan to seize Russia\u2019s immobilized…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}