{"id":415928,"date":"2025-01-10T16:47:17","date_gmt":"2025-01-10T15:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/01\/10\/ue-3-mld-ucraina-asset-russi-congelati\/"},"modified":"2025-01-10T17:14:13","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T16:14:13","slug":"eu-writes-3-billion-check-for-ukraine-paid-for-with-extra-profits-from-frozen-russian-capital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/01\/10\/eu-writes-3-billion-check-for-ukraine-paid-for-with-extra-profits-from-frozen-russian-capital\/","title":{"rendered":"EU writes 3 billion check for Ukraine. Paid for with extra profits from frozen Russian capital"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – The\u00a0EU made the first disbursement under the G7 loan to Ukraine<\/strong>, which will\u00a0be repaid with\u00a0interest on immobilized Russian assets<\/strong>\u00a0today (Jan. 10)<\/span>. Three<\/strong>\u00a0billion<\/strong> euros will end in\u00a0Kyiv’s state coffers, the first tranche<\/i> of the Old Continent’s contribution, which is expected to provide another 15 billion by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

As announced in a statement<\/a> by the EU executive, the Commission today wrote\u00a0the first check for Ukraine<\/strong> under the instrument for macro-financial assistance<\/strong> to the former Soviet republic (MFA), endowed with\u00a0approximately 18.1 billion to be disbursed over the course of 2025<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

This is the share that Brussels has pledged to do contribute\u00a0to the maxi loan of \u20ac45 billion <\/strong>($50 billion) agreed last summer<\/a> in Puglia during Italy’s G7 presidency. The\u00a0figure to be mobilized in Europe\u00a0is\u00a0well below the ceiling<\/strong> of 35 billion set last September<\/a> by the chairwoman of the EU executive,\u00a0Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"G7<\/a>
The G7 Italian presidency in Puglia in June 2024 (photo: Ludovic Marin\/Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The key feature of this exceptional loan is how it will be repaid: Kyiv will not have to contribute the necessary resources, thus being exempt from onerous repayments. Instead, the loan\u00a0will be secured by the extraordinary profits from immobilized Russian assets<\/strong>\u00a0collected through the\u00a0Cooperation Mechanism for Loans to Ukraine (ULCM)<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today’s tranche<\/i> (the disbursement of which was formally authorized by the Commission last December) is 3 billion, which will go to support the attacked country’s “current and future military, budgetary, and reconstruction<\/strong> needs” to “ensure macroeconomic stability and restore critical infrastructure destroyed by Russia,” as the Berlaymont memo states.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0next scheduled MFA disbursements<\/strong>\u00a0are expected between March and November. They should total 1 billion per month (for\u00a0a total of 9 billion<\/strong>).\u00a0The remaining 6 billion<\/strong>\u00a0should arrive in Ukrainian coffers by December.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Every day, for over a thousand days, Russia has been destroying Ukrainians’ homes and deliberately targeting critical infrastructure, including energy supplies,” said High Representative for Foreign Policy Kaja Kallas<\/strong>, who was in Rome today for the ministerial G7 meeting on Syria<\/strong>, where she met with both Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni<\/strong> and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani<\/strong>, as well as Defense Minister Guido Crosetto<\/strong>. “Russia started this war and must pay the price<\/strong>,” she added.<\/p>\n

\n

It is always a pleasure to return to Italy!<\/p>\n

.
\nA very constructive meeting with Prime Minister @GiorgiaMeloni<\/a><\/p>\n

Europe has a lot of challenges ahead and by working together we are stronger. pic.twitter.com\/yEhlnXaqmC<\/a><\/p>\n

– Kaja Kallas (@kajakallas) January 10, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These resources are in addition to the long-term funding<\/strong> that the EU provides to Kyiv through the Ukraine Facility<\/strong>, whose allocation is set at 50 billion for the period 2024\u20132027<\/strong> (when the current multi-year EU budget expires). Since the beginning of Russia’s large-scale invasion in February 2022, almost 134 billion in military, humanitarian, and financial assistance<\/strong> has come to Ukraine from the EU and member states.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Commission estimates that the Russian Central Bank’s assets frozen<\/strong>\u00a0in the jurisdictions of the Twenty-Seven are\u00a0around 210 billion<\/strong>. These assets\u00a0account for most of the Russian assets immobilized globally by Ukraine’s allies, while\u00a0interest-generated profits would be between 2.5 and 3 billion<\/strong>\u00a0per year.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After months of work on technical and legal details, the Twenty-Seven disbursed the first part of the extraordinary loan promised at the G7 meeting in Kyiv, which will be repaid through interest on immobilized Russian Central Bank assets. Kallas: “Russia started this war and must pay.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":415347,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[26327,25802,30151,30152,25803,25941,25789],"class_list":["post-415928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-extraprofits-en","tag-loan-g7-en","tag-russia-in-2","tag-asset-russi-en","tag-ukrainian-en-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415928"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":415933,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415928\/revisions\/415933"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}