Kyiv calls for frozen assets revival: Ukraine hopes the European Union will formally re-open the debate around using frozen Russian state assets to fund Kyiv, the country’s Finance Minister Sergii Marchenko has exclusively told Europe Today, calling on the EU to "think outside the box" and floating a solution that would see Belgium transfer the custodianship of the assets to the EU.
“We would like a broader coalition of countries to discuss this issue during the next months. It's fair enough to envisage another year of war and that Ukraine (will) need additional sources to finance their needs,” Marchenko told our chief EU editor Maria Tadeo.
Sweden, Poland, the Netherlands and Spain have recently urged the European Commission to re-open a previously-abandoned proposal to channel around €200 billion in immobilised assets – most of which are held in Belgium’s Euroclear depository – as a so-called “reparations loan” to Ukraine as the country’s financial needs mount.
Belgium has pushed back against the move, maintaining its previous concerns over the legal and financial risks of the unprecedented plan.
Kyiv’s proposed solution: Yet Marchenko told Maria that Ukraine wants the proposal to include “the possibility to transfer custodianship of the frozen assets from Belgium to the European Union”. “It will help to settle everything and mitigate the risk,” he explained.
