Brussels reportedly wants to pass legislation to block Hungary\u2019s veto in order to immobilize Moscow\u2019s funds indefinitely<\/p>\n
The EU is planning to fast-track legislation which would indefinitely freeze Russian assets in an effort to prevent Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban from vetoing the measure at the upcoming EU summit, the Financial Times has reported, citing officials familiar with the plans.
\nThe asset freeze, imposed as part of sanctions launched against Moscow in response to the Ukraine conflict, is prolonged by the EU each time the measures are renewed, which requires unanimous approval. The bloc hopes to use the funds to back a so-called \u201creparation loan\u201d to Kiev \u2013 a plan that the Kremlin has denounced as outright theft.
\nOrban has argued against further aid to Kiev, comparing it to trying to \u201chelp an alcoholic by sending them another crate of vodka,\u201d while calling for diplomacy with Russia instead of \u201cburning\u201d more money on Ukraine\u2019s war effort. Earlier this month, Budapest reportedly vetoed the issuance of Eurobonds to arm Kiev \u2013 another option put forward by the European Commission to continue financing the conflict.
\nAccording to the FT, EU officials have proposed invoking emergency powers to permanently freeze up to \u20ac210\u202fbillion ($245 billion) in sovereign Russian assets. Making the freeze indefinite would decouple it from regular sanction renewals, preventing Budapest from blocking the measure.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
EU risks \u2018deep split\u2019 over push to steal frozen Russian assets \u2013 Economist<\/p>\n
Diplomats reportedly believe that adopting the indefinite freeze within days would strengthen the EU\u2019s position when discussing the proposed \u201creparation loan.\u201d The matter is set to be on the agenda at the upcoming summit of EU leaders later this week.
\nAfter the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, EU states froze a large number of Russian central bank assets, mostly held by Brussels-based Euroclear. Hungary is not alone in opposing the plan to use the funds to back a loan for Ukraine. Belgium has said the initiative carries financial and legal risks, while France, Luxembourg, Germany, Italy, and Slovakia have also reportedly spoken against the move.
\nOn Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov argued that \u201crobbing\u201d Moscow \u201cin violation of all established norms of international and commercial law\u201d is the last remaining option for Brussels to sustain Kiev in its conflict with Moscow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Brussels reportedly wants to pass legislation to block Hungary\u2019s veto in order to immobilize Moscow\u2019s funds indefinitely The EU is planning to fast-track legislation which would indefinitely freeze Russian assets…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24112,"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-24111","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\/24111","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=24111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}