The coroversy over 2 billion euros; Europe in two ways to push or help Ukraine
While Trump holds Ukrainian peace talks, the European Union is looking at a € 5 billion secret weapon. However, European governmes have disagreed over the seizure of Russian blocked state assets.
US Preside Donald Trump behaves as if he had all the winning leaves in the Ukrainian war talks, but Brussels has a € 5 billion secret weapon in his sleeve.
Palico’s website wrote in a report that European governmes may come up with an extreme option after Europe has been dismissed from the February 9 talks between the United States and Russia on the end of the Ukrainian war; The confiscation of Russian governme assets that have been blocked after Moscow’s massive attack on Ukraine three years ago.
For the European Union, the bulk of these assets – about € 5 billion – is kept at the EuroClier financial institution in Brussels and is profitable. In corast, the United States has only $ 5 billion of these assets. The confiscation of these assets is a radical option that almost guaraees Europe to have a stronger place in the negotiations after Europe has been abandoned in rece US -Kremlin talks in Saudi Arabia.
But while the Ministers of Ceral Banks and heads of ceral banks come together this week in South Africa, European governmes disagree on whether the liberalization of these assets will show Brussels power, or the opposite outcome. It will have.
Play with the winning leaf
Among the threat of US ieraction with Ukraine, ai -Russian politicians argue that the liberation of these assets and its transfer to Kiev helps the war -torn coury to advocate on the battlefield and to resist Trump’s demands for the end of the war.
“(With Russian blocked assets), we can replace US support, if the United States decides not to support Ukraine,” said Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tassakhna.
“We have and we have to use € 5 billion in blocked Russian assets in Europe, and we have to use it,” Tassakhna told reporters in Brussels, along with his couerparts from Denmark, Sweden, Lithuania and Latvia. (Although the exact amou of these assets is unclear, it generally seems to be more accurate € 5 billion.)
The Baltic and Scandinavian couries, which are Russian neighbors, believe that this money should be given immediately to Ukraine. The position is supported by Poland, the Czech Republic and the EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaya Kalas, former Estonian Prime Minister Kaya Kalas.
“I do not agree with the legal problem … we need political will to do it,” Lithuania’s foreign minister said in an ierview with Paltiko. The capitals that are skeptical need to have stronger reasons why we should not do it. “
The opposition of the great European powers
But on the opposite fro, the great European powers, namely France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Ursula von are in the European Commission Chairman. They are worried that the confiscation of these assets will frighten iernational investors and eliminate the biggest leverage of the EU in peace talks.
French Preside Emmanuel Macron said during a meeting with Trump at the White House on Monday that Western allies could use the profits from these assets during the war, but the confiscation will be illegal reserves. However, he said that blocking these assets is an importa lever. Kaya Calas also admitted that the probability of confiscating these assets is very low in the near future.
“We need everyone’s support,” he said at a News conference on Monday. But so far we haven’t had such support. “
Blocked assets as lever
Oppones of the liberation of Russian assets argue that doing so is currely undermining the EU pressure leverage in peace talks with Russia.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, after meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Riyadh last week, said the EU should eveually participate in peace talks because of sanctions against Russia.
European couries acknowledge that billions of euros of Russian blocked assets give them more influence on the Kremlin. “If Russia really was to get rid of that money, it has to offer something in return,” said an EU diplomat.
Although Estonian Foreign Minister Tsakhna supports the direct transfer of the money to Kiev, his governme has also accepted that preserving these assets as leverage has its own benefits.
According to a docume prepared for the EU Foreign Ministers on Monday, the Taline governme said: “Coinuing to block these assets acts as a financial and diplomatic leverage and guaraees that Russia is a clear and tangible motivation. “To negotiate agreeme and compensate for Ukraine.”
The leaders of the EU couries have also passed a law that will block the assets uil Russia agreed to pay war compensation to Ukraine. These couries look at € 5 billion as a source to cover the huge costs of Ukraine’s reconstruction; The cost that the World Bank has estimated at $ 5 billion.
Another EU diplomat said, “Many disagree with the liberation of these assets because they consider it a capital to rebuild Ukraine.”
According to Reuters, Russia has shown the idea of the idea as the budget coinues to be renovated by Moscow -corolled Ukrainian areas.
Last year, a group of seven, known as the G2 of advanced industrialized couries, agreed after difficult negotiations to use the profits from these assets to guaraee a $ 2 billion loan to Ukraine. The Minister of Finance of the Group will come together on Wednesday and Thursday in Cape Town, as part of the Group Twey Summit, to discuss future support for Ukraine.
The end of the message
(Tagstotranslate) Ukraine War
