Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
Macron says Israeli PM's measures on Gaza 'unacceptable' and 'shameful'
Yemeni Armed Forces: Companies that have not announced the suspension of their flights should follow in the footsteps of those who did, suspending flights to airports in occupied Palestine
Yemeni Armed Forces: The operation confirms the continued blockade on navigation at Ben Gurion Airport
Yemeni Armed Forces: The missile successfully achieved its goal, causing millions of Zionists to flee to shelters and halting air traffic for about an hour
Yemeni Armed Forces: We targeted Ben Gurion Airport in the occupied Yafa region with a hypersonic ballistic missile
Al Mayadeen's correspondent: Air raid sirens sound in the Gaza envelope settlements
Al Mayadeen's correspondent in Gaza: The number of martyrs in the European Hospital massacre in Khan Younis has exceeded 20
Senior Resistance figure: Loser Netanyahu is trying to please the Zionist right by claiming that he is achieving success in Gaza
Senior Resistance figure: Israeli media reports about the presence of a Resistance leader at the site of the massacre committed by targeting the European Hospital are not true
Israeli army claims intercepting a ballistic missile launched from Yemen

Using Russian funds to help Ukraine 'difficult legal question': Scholz

  • By Al Mayadeen English
  • Source: Agencies
  • 25 Oct 2022 19:55
4 Min Read

The European Union wants to use Russia's frozen funds to help Ukraine with its reconstruction as the war still goes on.

  • x
  • German Chancellor Olaf Scholz
    German Chancellor Olaf Scholz

The West using frozen Russian assets to help with Ukraine's reconstruction is a complex legal issue that will require the European Union to do a lot of work before a decision is reached, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Friday.

"It is a very difficult legal question. And so a lot of work has to be done All of us will have to go through these questions; what is feasible, what is not feasible if you are sticking to the rule of law?" Scholz said, highlighting that Brussels was working on trying to understand the issue at hand.

"This is why the Commission is working hard to understand the problem [of using frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine] and find an idea about how to act and what to do," he added on the sidelines of the International Expert Conference on the Recovery, Reconstruction, and Modernization of Ukraine in Berlin.

The EU is now at the beginning of "something unprecedented", Scholz underlined, noting that he did not expect the 27-nation bloc to reach a decision on the matter anytime soon.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, on the other hand, said Brussels was already working on the issue and had already created a special group that was mulling the possibility of using Russian assets to provide assistance to Ukraine.

"We have created a task force with experts from Member States and international experts, which is called 'Seize and Freeze Task Force,'" she said.

According to the EU president, the task force in question will be tasked with mapping "what is out there has been frozen" and the "legal preconditions that have to be given to enable seizing and using" the assets in question.

Related News

Bridge construction underway as Russia, DPRK boost partnership

DPRK troops fought in Ukraine to support Russia, DPRK confirms

Additionally, the top EU official said a decision of this sort was not "legally trivial".

The European Council said last week that it had called on the European Commission to propose means it could use Russian assets to support the reconstruction of Ukraine.

Russian Security Council Deputy Secretary Alexander Venediktov deemed in June the freezing of Russian assets to be one of the "greatest thefts in history."

The Ukrainian President has several times asked his allies to further support him financially and militarily throughout the war, even by using frozen Russian assets.

In the first half of the year, the EU supported Ukraine with €1.2 billion in loans and billions in arms and weapons deliveries, and in July it agreed to provide an assistance package worth €9 billion of which €1 billion were dispatched last summer and another €5 billion are already approved but not yet delivered.

Meanwhile, the spokesperson for the Swiss Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research, Fabian Maienfisch, said earlier in the month that Switzerland disapproved of Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky's proposal to transfer frozen Russian assets to Ukraine.

Zelensky's proposal to block Russian assets in Swiss banks and transfer them to Ukraine was delivered a few weeks ago.

The West and its allies rolled out comprehensive sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine war, which included freezing Moscow's foreign currency reserves and halting international payments from Russian banks.

Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov estimated that about half of Russia's gold and foreign currency reserves, worth well over $300 billion, were frozen.

  • Ukraine crisis
  • Olaf Scholz
  • Russia
  • Germany
  • Ukraine
  • European Union
Russia & NATO

Russia & NATO

As the Draconian Western-led sanctions on Russia exacerbate the economic crisis worldwide, and as Russian troops gain more ground despite the influx of military aid into Ukraine, exposing US direct involvement in bio-labs spread across Eastern Europe and the insurgence of neo-Nazi groups… How will things unfold?

Most Read

Trump cut off contact with Netanyahu, senior Israeli official says

Trump cut off contact with Netanyahu: Israeli media

  • US & Canada
  • 9 May 2025
Pakistan downs an Indian jet and hits a military base in Kashmir escalation.

Pakistan downs 3 Indian jets, hits military base in Kashmir escalation

  • Politics
  • 7 May 2025
Saree

Yemeni Armed Forces target key Israeli sites, USS Truman

  • MENA
  • 7 May 2025
A Yemeni gunman walks past paintings depicting rockets and scenes in solidarity with Gaza, displayed on a roadside fence in Sanaa, Yemen, Monday, May 5, 2025 (AP)

Oman brokers US-Yemen ceasefire, Israelis in dark regarding deal

  • Politics
  • 6 May 2025

Coverage

All
Gaza prevails against genocide

Read Next

All
Labour Party leader Keir Starmer with his wife Victoria make their way through supporters as they arrive at the count for the Holborn and St Pancras Parliamentary constituency where the Starmer is standing for election, in London, Friday, July 5, 2024 (AP)
Politics

UK Labour MPs urge government to recognize Palestine

Israeli exodus: 60,000 Israelis fled last year without return
Politics

Israeli exodus: 60,000 settlers fled last year on one-way tickets

Hollywood actors condemn Gaza violence days before Cannes Festival
Arts and Culture

350+ Hollywood actors condemn Gaza genocide ahead of Cannes Festival

Likud minister calls Trump as ‘unpredictable,’ unreliable
Palestine

Likud minister rebukes Trump, calls him 'unpredictable', unreliable

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS