According to media reports, the EU hopes to make decisive progress in using frozen Russian assets to aid Ukraine.
After the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in February last year, the United States and the European Union frozen Russian assets in the West. Some Western officials advocated confiscating frozen Russian assets and using them for post-war reconstruction in Ukraine. However, this proposal has faced opposition within the West due to its violation of current laws, which has led to another solution, which is to tax the profits of frozen funds.
Due to legal and other concerns, the EU's plan to seek to utilize Russia's frozen assets has been repeatedly postponed, which seems to have led to less patience among EU officials.
According to the draft joint statement seen by the media, EU leaders will hold a summit in Brussels from October 26th to 27th local time, at which time they will call for decisive progress in the use of frozen Russian assets. EU diplomats are scheduled to hold technical talks on this matter on October 17th.
Both the United States and the UK support the EU's imposition of a windfall tax on frozen Russian assets. According to a statement released by the finance ministers and central bank governors of the Group of Seven (G7) on Thursday, G7 member countries have jointly frozen approximately $280 billion in Russian assets.
It is reported that G7 will carry out more work in the coming months to find legitimate and reasonable ways to utilize frozen Russian assets.
An EU official stated this week that negotiations on Russia's frozen windfall tax have not made progress for several months, partly due to opposition from Belgium.
Belgium is a member of the European Union, but not a member of the G7. Euroclear, located in Belgium, manages approximately 125 billion euros in frozen Russian central bank assets. Belgium has the sole decision on whether to impose a windfall tax on Russian assets placed at the European Clearing Bank.
Belgian officials have stated that the country is promoting a solution for the G7, and relying solely on EU measures will not be effective as the related business will shift from the European clearing system to other international clearing institutions that are not bound by such requirements.