EU Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders said on Tuesday that the freezing of assets of the Russian Central Bank may be necessary to "guarantee" future Russian payments to Ukraine
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th May, 2023) EU Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders said on Tuesday that the freezing of assets of the Russian Central Bank may be necessary to "guarantee" future Russian payments to Ukraine.
"We have immobilized the reserves of Central Bank of Russia. It's hundreds of billions there ... And it's severe guarantee for the future payment of Russia for the compensation for the damage caused by the Russian aggression or for the reconstruction of Ukraine," Reynders told journalists in Brussels before the meeting of the General Affairs Council.
On May 25, European Commission spokesman Christian Wigand said that as of mid-May, EU countries had frozen a total of more than 200 billion euros ($213 billion) in the assets of the Russian Central Bank. In addition, they have frozen more than 24 billion euros in private funds held by Russians in the European Union.
However, the European Commission has admitted that it is impossible to confiscate Russian funds because there is no legal basis for doing so. Brussels acknowledges that sooner or later the funds of the Russian Central Bank will have to be returned. At the same time, the EU is considering the possibility of using the proceeds of the frozen Russian funds for the benefit of Ukraine. The European Commission intends to offer to invest the frozen Russian funds in European government bonds at 2.6% per annum.
Most of the central bank's funds are frozen in accounts in Belgium. On May 12, that country's government announced a new package of military and civilian aid to Ukraine worth 92 million euros, which Belgian authorities said would be paid for with taxable income from Russian assets frozen in that country. In early April, the Belgian government reported "unanticipated" revenues of 625 million euros from the taxation of interest earned on the placement of frozen Russian assets.
