The EU is preparing to confiscate proceeds from the custody of frozen funds from the Russian central bank to Ukraine. As announced by the current Belgian Presidency of the EU Council, representatives of the 27 Member States agreed last night on a proposal on the topic. It now needs to be formalized and will then be officially decided through a written procedure.
According to diplomats, the agreed procedure envisages, as a first step, ensuring that extraordinary income from the custody of Russian Central Bank assets is kept separately. In a second phase, part of the funds are planned to be sent to Ukraine, which is being attacked by Russia. However, other legal texts still need to be developed for this.
Annual sum in the billions
According to estimates, an amount of billions could be incurred every year, since, according to the Commission, more than 200 billion from the Russian Central Bank have been frozen in the EU and income from the custody of capital is constantly increasing.
Brussels-based financial institution Euroclear recently announced that it earned three billion euros in interest income in the first nine months of last year alone, which was related to sanctions on Russia. Euroclear is by far the most important EU institution holding Russian central bank assets.
EU officials stress that the project initially only deals with revenue that Euroclear is generating unscheduled due to EU sanctions against the Russian central bank. For now, no expropriation in the true sense is planned.