Italy says EU plan on Russian assets ‘cannot be forced’

AFP | Rome

Email : editor@newsofbahrain.com

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni yesterday said an EU plan for financing Ukraine using frozen Russian assets “cannot be forced”, ahead of a Brussels summit expected to focus on the issue.

“These are complex decisions that cannot be forced,” Meloni told parliament in a speech before the European Council meeting on Thursday and Friday.

“Italy obviously considers the principle that Russia should be the first to pay for the reconstruction of the nation it has attacked to be sacrosanct, but this result must be achieved on a solid legal basis.”

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen is pushing a plan to use frozen Russian central bank assets to provide Kyiv a 90-billion-euro loan over the next two years -- but that move faces fierce opposition from Belgium, which hosts most of the funds.

Belgium fears the scheme could open it up to Russian reprisals and is insisting on rock-solid guarantees from other EU countries that they will share any legal and financial liabilities.

Attempts to reassure the Belgian government have so far failed to break the deadlock, setting up a potentially marathon round of wrangling at the summit.

In theory other EU leaders could override Belgium and ram the initiative through with a weighted majority -- but that would be a nuclear option that few see as likely for now.

Meloni said that Italy had given its support for the plan “even though we do not agree with the method used”.

She called for “clarity regarding the possible risks associated with the proposed use of the liquidity generated by the immobilisation of assets, particularly those relating to reputation, retaliation or new, heavy burdens on national budgets”.

Russia fired a shot across the bows last week, with its central bank announcing it was suing the Belgium-based Euroclear financial group which holds frozen assets.

Meloni said it would be “short-sighted to focus our attention on a single holder of frozen Russian sovereign assets, namely Belgium, when other partner nations also have assets frozen in their respective financial systems”.