Ž.F. / STA
23. 10. 2024, 17.56
Updated: 23 October 2024, 18.02
The group of the world’s most developed economies (G7) reached an agreement on the distribution of a loan to Ukraine worth 46 billion euros from the proceeds from the management of frozen Russian assets, the United States announced.
As announced on Monday by the US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellenthe US will contribute 20 billion dollars to the loan, and the European Union is expected to contribute the same amount. The remaining $10 billion is expected to be provided by Great Britain, Japan and Canada.
It is a loan that was agreed upon in principle by the representatives of the G7 countries and the European Union at the June summit in Italy. The adoption of the final deal now comes after negotiations in which, according to the US, they found a way to agree on burden-sharing without the European Union having to change its rules on sanctions.
According to US officials, the US will continue to work to get the European Union to extend the sanctions on frozen Russian assets to just every three years instead of every six months. This would ensure that Russian assets, the proceeds of which they intend to allocate to Ukraine, will effectively remain frozen.
In September, the European Commission proposed changing the period for the renewal of sanctions. However, Hungary, which currently holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union, believes that a decision on this should wait for the results of the American elections.
Today, however, the member states of the European Union finally adopted the remaining legal basis, which will enable the use of revenues from the management of Russian assets frozen under Western sanctions. In the European Union, from February 2022, the funds of the Russian Central Bank in the amount of approximately 210 billion euros are frozen. Extraordinary income from the management of this property is currently estimated at 2.5 to 3 billion euros per year.
The Council of the European Union approved the establishment of a special loan mechanism that will enable Ukraine to repay the loan it will receive from the EU and the G7 member states with revenues. The regulation also provides that the European Union will contribute up to 35 billion euros, but according to today’s agreement within the G7 group, the final contribution should amount to about half of this amount, 18 billion euros.
Source: svet24.si
