MOSCOW, March 25. /ITAR-TASS/. Pino Arlacchi, member of the European Parliament, believes it is wrong of the European Union to grant financial aid to Ukraine and suggests confiscating funds of Ukrainian oligarchs invested in European banks.
The funds Ukrainian oligarchs invested in European banks, exceeding 50 billion euro, should be confiscated and channeled for relief to Ukraine, he said in an interview with Itar-Tass.
He believes the new composition of the parliament of the European Union will endorse such a resolution regarding Ukraine. He noted that such measures had been approved for North Africa, when the funds of dictators of Egypt, Tunisia and Libya were confiscated. So, there exist juridically substantiated mechanisms for that, Arlacchi said.
He noted, however, that there was a need for a request for this from the Ukrainian government, which is so far under oligarchs’ control.
Arlacchi recalled that the European Union had prepared an economic package for relief to Ukraine in the amount of 11 billion euro. Criticizing this stand he noted that two billion euro out of the sum was a grant that was actually a gift to the corrupt government that could not guarantee the return of the funds.
Arlacchi noted it was irresponsible to give such a loan to the Ukrainian government.