European Union ambassadors on Monday backed the European Commission’s proposal to use super-profits from Russian assets frozen in Europe to finance Ukraine’s reconstruction.
The European Commission drafted such a proposal in December 2023. The EU presidency said on social media:
“EU ambassadors just agreed in principle on a proposal on the use of windfall profits related to immobilised assets to support Ukraine’s reconstruction.”
Earlier in January, Bloomberg, citing its sources, reported that the EU was moving forward with plans to apply an excess profits tax to profits from frozen Russian assets. Meanwhile, according to Bloomberg, a number of EU countries, including Germany, have signalled their opposition to the confiscation of Russian assets.
In October 2023, Belgian authorities announced that they would create a €1.7 billion fund for Ukraine, using tax revenues from profits from Russian assets frozen in EU countries.
The EU, United States, Japan and Canada froze some $300 billion of Russian central bank assets in 2022. According to media reports, more than 200 billion euros of frozen Russian assets are stored in EU countries, mainly in the Belgian clearing house Euroclear.
