BRUSSELS: The European Union has accelerated efforts to agree on a scheme to use frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine after a US-backed peace plan last week set out different ideas, EU officials said.
EU leaders tried at a summit last month to agree on a plan to use 140 billion euros ($162 billion) in frozen Russian sovereign assets in Europe as a loan for Kyiv, but failed to secure the backing of Belgium, where much of the funds are held.
The European Commission, the EU executive body, hopes to address Belgium’s concerns in a draft legal proposal which it will present this week on using the frozen sovereign assets to support Kyiv in 2026 and 2027, EU officials said.
Work on the EU plan was already under way but details that emerged last week of how the assets might be used under the US-backed plan, which European leaders saw as heavily favoring Moscow, have helped focus minds in the 27-nation bloc.
“It surely made work on this even more urgent,” one official with knowledge of preparations for the project said.
