EU countries agreed to indefinitely immobilise Russian sovereign assets on Thursday, removing a major obstacle to providing a €210 billion “reparations loan” to Ukraine.
The decision by EU envoys came the day after Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever openly questioned the legality of the European Commission’s proposal to permanently freeze Moscow’s funds based on an emergency provision of the EU treaties.
Use of “Article 122“, formally floated by the Commission last week, is critical to avoid the assets being returned to Russia if sanctions on the Kremlin are lifted, which could leave Belgium on the hook to repay hundreds of billions of euros to Moscow if the loan goes ahead. The vast majority of the assets are based at Euroclear, a Brussels-based clearing house.
Currently, sanctions on the assets must be rolled over unanimously by EU capitals every six months. Hungary’s pro-Moscow leader, Viktor Orbán, has repeatedly threatened to block the extension of the sanctions, but has ultimately always backed down.
One EU diplomat said the vast majority of EU countries supported Thursday’s move. Another said that Hungary and Slovakia – another pro-Moscow member state – will likely vote against the proposal when EU countries formally decide on Friday. Belgium will likely abstain, they added.
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What is the consequences of this if EU manage to steal the money? Would rest of the world withdraw their assets from EU in fear? Has anyone done a risk assessment on this?
Maybe, maybe not.
I’m sure a lot of oligarchs will try to scare people by saying they’ll divest, but actually following through with those threats is a different story.
Unfortunately, in this age of pussies and bitches, even the threat of retaliation is enough to get them to back down.