European Commission working on next steps concerning frozen Russian assets

The European Commission has welcomed the decision of EU ambassadors regarding establishing a dedicated account for the transfer of interest from taxed profits derived from frozen Russian assets. They have also announced that they are actively working on subsequent steps.

Source: Christian Wiegand, the spokesman for the European Commission, at a briefing in Brussels, as reported by European Pravda.

Wiegand stressed that the purpose of these measures is for the excess profits of the Russian Central Bank to be transferred to Ukraine eventually. 

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He added that currently, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, and the Vice-Presidents of the European Commission are “ready to prepare the next step as quickly as possible.”

“We do not have specific deadlines that we could announce to you today, but there is a tremendous readiness to do this as quickly as possible,” said the EU representative.

Background:

• At a meeting on 29 January, permanent representatives of the EU countries coordinated the creation of a separate account to which the interest from taxed income of frozen Russian assets will be transferred.
• Earlier this month the foreign affairs ministers of the EU reached a political agreement concerning the plan to use Russian assets to support Ukraine.
• However, a number of EU member states are against the confiscation of these assets due to legal hardships. The compromise is to tax the income of these frozen assets and transfer these funds to Ukraine.
• Meanwhile, the US is promoting the idea of the confiscation of frozen assets. Last week, profile committees of the Senate and the Chamber of Representatives of the US adopted a law intended to help create conditions for confiscation of Russian assets and their transfer to Ukraine to support its reconstruction.

Read also: Challenges of confiscation: what will help Ukraine achieve transfer of Russian assets.

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