{"id":420887,"date":"2025-03-11T10:51:43","date_gmt":"2025-03-11T09:51:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/03\/11\/ue-ragionare-confisca-asset-russi\/"},"modified":"2025-03-11T12:49:58","modified_gmt":"2025-03-11T11:49:58","slug":"eu-begins-seriously-consider-seizing-frozen-russian-assets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/03\/11\/eu-begins-seriously-consider-seizing-frozen-russian-assets\/","title":{"rendered":"EU begins seriously consider seizing frozen Russian assets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels –\u00a0The\u00a0EU is trying to break the deadlock\u00a0on confiscating frozen Russian assets. The issue becomes a central part of the Ecofin meeting\u00a0of the Finance\u00a0Ministers of the 27 member states\u00a0in Brussels. The Europe of states is still uncertain on\u00a0to do, but there is slightly less hesitation, which may mean the beginning of a decision to come. Finland is pushing for the hard line: “At the moment, we need to go ahead and proceed by seizing\u00a0frozen Russian assets” in Europe<\/strong>, the\u00a0deputy prime minister and finance minister, Riikka Purra<\/strong>, said. This choice is congenial to what Europeans want and does not hide, which is to “ensure a strong negotiating position for Ukraine” when talks with Vladimir Putin’s Russia begin.<\/p>\n

The solution does not displease the Austrians. Indeed,\u00a0“seizing Russian assets would be a new way,”<\/strong> Vienna’s Finance Minister Markus Marterbauer<\/strong> acknowledges. However, he warns that “A unanimous decision is needed.” On the issue, “majority decisions should be avoided.” Assuming that a majority exists, which still needs to be tested at the test by\u00a0discussion, the opposing positions of France and Germany remain, which are not easy to overcome.<\/p>\n

The Polish rotating presidency of the EU Council<\/a> makes itself available to states. “We must exert even more pressure on Russia<\/strong>,” Polish Finance Minister Andrzej Domanski<\/strong> said. These ambiguous words\u00a0suggest that in the event of a unanimous will reached between now and the end of the six-month presidency —\u00a0by June 30 —\u00a0Poland will not oppose it. Indeed, the Polish presidency intends to proceed with new restrictive measures: “We see that sanctions work. The Russian economy weakens.”<\/p>\n

The debate over the use of frozen Russian assets in Europe is not new, just as\u00a0European uncertainties.\u00a0There are fears that it would undermine markets, individuals, and investors, as well as risks to the international attractiveness of the euro. The president of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, also insisted on this issue at the meeting she had with the president of the European Council,<\/a> Antonio Costa. There is concern that investors, whom the EU needs to finance the dual transition and revive the defense industry, may reconsider their choices, to the detriment of the eurozone. Finance\u00a0ministers, however, are reviving the debate.<\/p>\n

A consensus is emerging\u00a0in the European Parliament on this issue, with the Socialists’ group leader, Iratxe Garcia Perez,<\/strong> inviting the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to submit a proposal <\/strong>to seize\u00a0the 200 billion euros of frozen Russian state assets<\/strong>\u00a0to rebuild and arm Ukraine. In addition, the aim is to allow Kyiv to use the weapons to strike military targets. It is the EU of peace that no longer exists.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The proposal at the Ecofin Council table. Finland and Austria in favor but unanimity needed, which is not there at the moment. Lagarde’s warning: there is a risk of investors running away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":242884,"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":[25727,25707],"tags":[30670,26004,27557,25804,25803],"class_list":["post-420887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-spotlight","category-world-politics","tag-asset-en","tag-ecofin-en-2","tag-sanctionsin","tag-russia-in-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420887","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\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420887"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":420916,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420887\/revisions\/420916"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}