Brussels has proposed a highly controversial plan amid Ukraine's financial crisis: using "emergency powers" to bypass the member states' veto mechanism, freezing Russian sovereign assets within the EU as collateral to raise up to 210 billion euros for Kyiv. The core of this design is issuing a "war compensation loan," leveraging frozen Russian assets to initially raise 90 billion euros, meeting Ukraine's financing needs for the next two years, with the remaining part to be settled after Russia pays compensation. This proposal means that the EU sanctions mechanism could potentially take effect without unanimous agreement for the first time, clearly targeting potential obstruction from pro-Russian countries such as Hungary and Slovakia. The European Commission plans to invoke Article 122 of the EU Treaty, describing the risk of unfreezing Russian assets as an "urgent economic threat" to the internal market, thereby maintaining the long-term freeze of the assets. However, this interpretation has caused divisions among member states. Belgium has been the most strongly opposed, fearing that if future sanctions are lifted or a peace agreement does not involve compensation, the EU may have to pay back Russia, especially since the majority of Russian assets held by Euroclear fall under Belgian regulation. Legal and financial risks have also been warned about. Several officials have questioned the applicability of the emergency clause, while ECB President Lagarde called the idea "pushed to its limits," emphasizing that the euro system must abide by international law and its own authority. The European Commission also proposed a backup financing scheme guaranteed by the EU's common budget, but this path requires unanimous agreement from all member states, and Hungary has already clearly opposed expanding aid to Ukraine. EU leaders will discuss these proposals at a summit later this month.
Image source: network
Original: toutiao.com/article/1850558204583947/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author himself