EU supported use of Russian assets profits to support Ukraine
EU summit participants approved a proposal from the European Commission, which envisages the use of profits from frozen Russian sovereign assets to partially finance a €50bn budget assistance programme for Ukraine until 2027, according to the statement adopted following the meeting, TASS reports
“To contribute to the recovery, reconstruction and modernisation of the country, foster social cohesion and progressive integration into the EU, with a view to possible future EU membership, a Ukraine Facility for the period 2024-2027 will be set up. The sum of the overall resources made available from the facility will not exceed €50bn, of which €33bn will be in the form of loans guaranteed from the EU budget, and €17bn will be in the form of non-repayable support. Potential revenues could be generated under the relevant EU legal acts, concerning the use of extraordinary revenues held by private entities stemming directly from the immobilised Central Bank of Russia assets,” the statement reads.
On January 30th, the ambassadors of the EU countries tentatively agreed on a decision to transfer profits from Russian assets to special accounts and supported the European Commission, which unilaterally asserted that ‘income from Russian assets does not belong to Russia’. According to sources, the European Commission now intends to introduce a special tax on these incomes, close to 100 percent, to transfer them to the EU budget.
