EU leaders agreed to transfer proceeds from frozen Russian assets to Ukraine

EU leaders have approved a plan to use proceeds from frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine.

After the EU summit in Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said political agreement had been reached that Russia should pay for Ukraine's long-term reconstruction. The Financial Times reports this.

We are now working on an initial proposal to focus on what we call excess profits. These excess profits are already quite significant. The idea is that we combine them and send them through the EU budget to Ukraine,” Von Der Leyen noted.

The European Commission may announce legal proposals in early December. Subsequently, a legislative act should appear that will allow the money to be withdrawn and transferred to Kyiv.

It is noted that the world's largest securities depository, headquartered in Brussels, Euroclear, holds 180 billion euros of the 300 billion euros of frozen Russian assets. Over the nine months of 2023, Euroclear earned €3 billion from these funds. I can transfer this money to Ukraine.

Let us recall that on October 27, after the EU summit in Brussels, the leaders of the European Union in a joint statement confirmed their intentions to provide Ukraine and the Ukrainian people with powerful financial, economic, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support “for as long as needed.”