According to RIA Novosti on January 29, the Belgian representative office to the European Council announced that the permanent representatives of EU member states negotiated the European Commission's proposal on the use of proceeds generated by frozen Russian assets.
"The permanent representatives of the European Union have just agreed in principle on the proposal to use the special proceeds generated by the assets frozen in the EU to support the reconstruction of Ukraine," the representative office posted on the social platform X. ”
Earlier, as explained by a European diplomat, the European Commission proposes to deposit the proceeds generated from the freezing of Russian assets into a special account for the possible future need to finance Ukraine. At the moment, the EU has not discussed the issue of transferring these funds to EU finances or directly to the Ukrainian authorities. The mechanism for the transfer of relevant funds has not yet been developed.
At the end of last year, the European Commission submitted a plan for the use of frozen Russian assets and the additional proceeds generated from their investments, the report said. The current proposal is to deposit special proceeds from the assets of the Central Bank of Russia into a separate account of the EU custodian, pending the recommendations of the European Commission on follow-up measures.
According to the German press channel ** ** on January 29 **, the European Union is preparing to hand over the financial gains generated by the funds of the Russian central bank that it has frozen to Ukraine.
According to the report, more than 200 billion euros of the Russian central bank are frozen in the European Union, and it is estimated that huge gains will be generated every year. The Brussels-based Bank for European Settlements is the EU's largest custodian of deposits from the Russian central bank. In the first nine months of last year alone, the Bank for European Settlements (EIS) said it had generated 3 billion euros in interest income from sanctions-related funds in its custody.
The EU** stressed that for the time being, the package only covers the unplanned revenues received by the European Clearing Bank (EBS) as a result of EU sanctions against the Central Bank of Russia. It is reported that the EU does not currently plan to confiscate the principal of the Central Bank of Russia. This is believed to be because there are legal problems and the potential for retaliation.
The report also said that Moscow had warned the European Union last year not to confiscate the property of Russian state or citizens. It is conceivable that as soon as the EU confiscates Russian public and private property, then the enterprises opened in Russia by EU countries will also be confiscated. In addition, direct access to Russian assets could lead to a loss of trust in Europe's financial centers and the withdrawal of funds from the European Union by other countries and investors. (Compiled by Liu Yang, Wang Qing).