BRUSSELS, December 18. /TASS/. EU leaders weren’t thrilled about the delayed start of today’s summit in Brussels on the topic of financing Ukraine using frozen Russian assets, Politico reported, citing sources.
According to the news outlet, the delay was caused after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa held an impromptu meeting with a farmers’ association, forcing summit participants to wait for about an hour before proceedings began.
"This is disrespectful. Given today's agenda, it's simply absurd," Politico quoted an unnamed European official as saying.
The EU summit is taking place in Brussels on December 18-19. Upon arriving at the meeting, von der Leyen said that none of the EU leaders would leave the summit until the issue of financing Ukraine is resolved.
In addition to discussions on financial assistance for Ukraine, the summit agenda includes measures to boost the competitiveness of the European economy and increase military spending by EU member states in order to accelerate the development of the defense industry.
A TASS correspondent reported that thousands of farmers’ tractors entered Brussels’ European Quarter at the start of the summit, as farmers protested against reduced support for European agricultural production and the EU’s free trade agreement with the South American Common Market (Mercosur).
On December 12, the EU Council decided to freeze Russian sovereign assets indefinitely. The European Commission hopes that EU member states will agree at the December 18-19 summit to expropriate €210 billion in Russian assets, €185 billion of which are frozen at Belgium-based Euroclear, to finance Kiev.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the confiscation of Russian assets being discussed in Europe would amount to theft. Russian Justice Minister Konstantin Chuychenko told TASS that the country’s leadership has already been presented with options for responding to the possible seizure of Russian assets by Western countries.