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European Commission confirms agreement on expropriation of income from Russian assets

This decision must now be approved by the EU Council at ministerial level

© Sean Gallup/ Getty Images

BRUSSELS, May 8. /TASS/. President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, confirmed that the envoys of 27 EU countries had reached an agreement on the expropriation of proceeds from seized Russian assets to purchase weapons for Kiev.

"I welcome today's political agreement on our proposal to use the proceeds from immobilized Russian assets for Ukraine. There could be no stronger symbol and no greater use for that money than to make Ukraine and all of Europe a safer place to live," she wrote on X social network (former Twitter).

In turn, the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU reported that the ambassadors had reached an agreement in principle that this money will serve the reconstruction of Ukraine and its military defense.

This decision must now be approved by the EU Council at ministerial level. The European Commission intends to collect from 2 to 3 billion euros this year in this way, 90% of these funds are expected to be used for the purchase of weapons for Kiev, and 10% for investments in the military-industrial complex of the EU countries. The EC expects that the first receipts of expropriated funds may be received in July.

Earlier, the executive director of the Euroclear depository, Valerie Urbain, revealed the alleged scheme of the European Union misappropriating income from Russian assets. According to her, the amount that the EC will actually receive will be between 87% and 89% of the net profit from the reinvestment of Russian assets after paying Belgian taxes of 25%. Euroclear insists that between 11% and 13% of net profits remain in the company's accounts to cover its risk of claims by investors to recover their funds.

The European Commission took the first practical step towards expropriating proceeds from Russian assets earlier this year, adopting a resolution stating that "income from seized assets does not belong to Russia." Experts in the banking industry consider this thesis untenable. In fact, it is equivalent to the statement that income from a bank deposit does not belong to its owner.

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