The European Union together with partners will develop a plan of confiscation of Russian assets to use them to rebuild Ukraine and compensate for the losses caused by Russia’s war, announced the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen in her address on November 30, writes Yevropeyska Pravda.
Key facts
- The damage suffered by Ukraine is estimated at €600 billion, according to von der Leyen. “Russia and its oligarchs have to compensate Ukraine for the damage and cover the costs for rebuilding the country,” she stressed.
- The President of the European Commission reminded that the EU has blocked 300 billion euros of the Russian Central Bank reserves and we have frozen 19 billion euros of Russian oligarchs’ money.
- Von der Leyen noted that in the short term, the EU could create, with its partners, a structure to manage these funds and invest them, and then use the proceeds for Ukraine.
- She added that the EU will work on an international agreement with its partners to find legal ways to get to it.
Context
The European Commission studied a possibility of confiscating Russian assets to finance Ukraine’s rebuilding, reported Financial Times. Poland is an active advocate of this idea, believing that Ukraine must receive the assets of sanctioned oligarchs and the funds from frozen reserves of the Russian Central Bank as compensation.
The Ukrainian government has been calling for several months to transfer the frozen Russian assets to its accounts as a compensation for rebuilding the country destroyed by the war. Previously, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal estimated the cost of rebuilding at $750 billion.
Ukraine’s recovery and rebuilding will cost at least $349 billion, according to a joint assessment of the Government of Ukraine, the European Commission and the World Bank. At least a third of this amount is needed in the next 1.5-3 years.
The EU separately considered a possibility of freezing the assets of Russians under sanctions, having expanded the list of crimes, such as money laundering and corruption, by adding violation of EU sanctions to it.
As of today, the EU countries have frozen nearly EUR 17.5 billion in assets owned by Russian individuals and legal entities under sanctions.
More than $1 billion is required for the post-war rebuilding of Ukraine. Partner countries will be involved in the process. They will be able to take patronage over certain cities and oblasts, stated President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in his video address to the General Assembly of the International Bureau of Expositions presenting Odesa as a candidate to host Expo 2030.
Zelenskyy added that thanks to the special patronage system, countries and companies will be able to engage in rebuilding specific regions, cities, areas and companies. At the moment, the following countries have shown interest in this system: France, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Poland, Portugal, Italy, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Latvia, Estonia, Switzerland, Slovakia, Austria, Greece, Canada, the USA, Japan and Australia.