BRUSSELS, March 22. /TASS/. Any confiscation by the EU of income earned on frozen Russian assets must be "legally bulletproof," or financial markets will face intractable problems, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said.
"Belgium is ready at any time to transfer income from taxes on profits from Russian assets to Ukraine; however, as for the assets themselves, a certain level of financial stability is needed here, the decision must be legally bulletproof so that the markets can digest it," he said, as reported by a TASS correspondent in Brussels.
Earlier, a Brussels summit of European Union leaders resolved that the bloc’s decision on whether to seize income on frozen Russian assets needs to be finalized.
Commenting on this decision, De Croo said that the EU will not be able to use confiscated income from Russian assets to rebuild Ukraine if Kiev loses, so the money is needed for weapons.
"Belgium supports the use of revenues for reconstruction needs, but the EU will not be able to do this if Ukraine loses. Therefore, it seems appropriate to spend these funds on arms supplies," he said, upholding the relevant proposal of the European Commission (EC) and the EU diplomatic service to transfer 90% of confiscated income toward weapons procurement for Kiev.
According to De Croo, currently, the main proposal of the EC and the EU diplomatic service is to transfer 90% of confiscated income from frozen Russian sovereign assets toward buying weapons for the Ukrainian armed forces. The summit participants did not approve this mechanism, however, but simply instructed the EU Council to continue developing it at the ministerial level.
In total, Bank of Russia assets valued at over 200 bln euros have been frozen in EU countries, mainly at the Belgium-based Euroclear securities clearing house, which holds about 190 bln euros of the frozen Russian assets.
However, at the summit’s final press conference, EC President Ursula von der Leyen called on the bloc’s member countries to approve this mechanism, saying that the EU countries are "swift now in concluding the proposal, we could disburse the first billion on the first of July."
In 2024, the EC hopes to receive a total of about 3 bln euros if the mechanism for expropriating these revenues is approved, she said.
The EC and the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell are proposing that 90% of income earned on frozen Russian assets be allocated toward purchasing weapons for Kiev and transferring another 10% to the EU budget for financing Ukraine’s domestic defense industry. This is already the third proposal on what to do with monies that have not even been earned yet.
Earlier, the EC had proposed using these funds to finance a budget assistance program for Kiev in the amount of 50 bln euros until 2027.
Prior to that, the Belgian government, which has jurisdiction over Euroclear, promised to directly transfer to Kiev funds received through taxes on income earned from the frozen assets that the EC is trying to seize entirely.
In February, EU countries approved an EC resolution stating that income earned on frozen Russian assets allegedly does not belong to Russia. According to banking sector experts, however, this roughly corresponds to the thesis that income earned on a bank deposit does not belong to the deposit holder.