The European Union is about to use the cash value of €140 billion worth of frozen Russian state assets to finance a mega loan to Ukraine. But the European Commission still wants more, according to a document obtained by POLITICO.
The bulk of the frozen assets sit in a Belgium-based financial depository called Euroclear. But an additional €25 billion lies in private bank accounts across the bloc, and the EU executive wants to discuss using those funds to issue loans to Kyiv as well.
“It should be considered whether the Reparations Loan initiative could be extended to other immobilised assets within the EU,” reads the document, which the Commission circulated to EU capitals ahead of a Friday ambassadorial meeting on the topic.
“The legal feasibility of extending the Reparations Loan approach towards such assets has not been assessed in detail,” the document continued. “Such an assessment would need to take place before taking a decision on further steps.”
The document outlines the “design principles” for the Ukraine Reparations Loan initiative that will be up for debate ahead of next week’s EU summit in Brussels.
EU leaders are expected to have a broad discussion on the initiative and to call on the Commission to present a proposal for the loan. EU officials expect the bill to arrive quickly, and to serve as a platform for further talks on the financial engineering needed to make it work.
Finance ministers will discuss the bill when they next meet in November.
Hellbound and Down 