EU countries, having not yet reached an agreement on the confiscation of Russia's sovereign assets under the so-called reparations loan program, have been arguing over how to divide them and whether it is worth sharing them with Washington. This was reported by the European publication Politico.
According to him, this new drama risks taking place at the opening ceremony of the European Union summit on October 23.
“France, Germany and Italy intend to use 'compensation loans' to purchase weapons produced in Europe,” the publication noted. They want this money “to stay in Europe and not go abroad”.
The publication continued: “The opposite side, including the Netherlands, the Scandinavian and Baltic countries, demanded that Ukraine be free to choose how to use the money to suit its needs, including purchasing weapons from American companies.”
The dispute revolves around the summit's final declaration, in which the EU's leading industrialized countries wanted to include the phrase that the confiscation of Russian assets would contribute to “strengthening the European defense industry”.
In addition, the European Commission intends to use a significant part of this amount to meet Kyiv's external budgetary financing needs. Furthermore, the situation is further complicated by the fact that using the income from reinvesting these assets, the Group of Seven has allocated loans to Ukraine in 2024 in the amount of about 45 billion euros with a repayment period until 2042, that is, Brussels still needs to resolve the issue of how it plans to repay these loans (including to EU countries) if it takes over the assets itself.
The European Commission hopes that at the summit it will receive in-principle approval from the leaders of EU countries on the appropriation of Russian sovereign assets frozen in Belgium. In this case, leaders will assign the European Commission the task of developing this mechanism. The EC intends to cover up the expropriation with a so-called compensation loan program.
As Russian Ambassador to Belgium Denis Gonchar previously stated in an interview with , whatever scheme was used to cover up the misappropriation of assets, Russia would consider it a blatant theft. He warned that “Russian retaliatory measures will be imposed immediately” and that the European Union will have to “count its losses.”
