FRANKFURT: Any European Union decision on using frozen Russian state assets to help Ukraine must follow international law and the European Central Bank is “very attentive” to the process, ECB President Christine Lagarde said on Monday.
The EU is searching for a way to finance Ukraine’s defense and reconstruction with some of the 210 billion euros worth of Russian sovereign assets immobilized in the West after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The EU would then use the cash to issue a “Reparations Loan” to Ukraine.
“We very much expect that any scheme that is discussed and eventually introduced at some point in time will be done in accordance with international rules, with international law,” Lagarde told European lawmakers in Strasbourg.
Lagarde is worried that a legally contentious move would damage the credibility of the euro and discourage investors from holding euro assets, potentially damaging financial stability.
