More than 120 members of the European Parliament who support Ukraine are increasing pressure on EU leadership and calling for the resumption of discussions on confiscating Russia's blocked assets to finance Ukraine. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Sputnik Kazakhstan.
This was reported by Euractiv, citing a letter from the parliamentarians.
Russia has repeatedly called the blocking of its assets illegal and warned that retaliatory measures would follow if the assets were confiscated.
Karlsbro: Using the assets would fundamentally change capabilities
"Using the blocked assets would fundamentally change Europe's ability to finance Ukraine in the long term," Karin Karlsbro, a Swedish MEP and initiator of the appeal, told the publication.
The MEPs called on the European Commission to prepare a new proposal "capable of resolving the issues that prevented an agreement last year."
The appeal was supported by six political groups
The appeal was supported by representatives of six political groups in the European Parliament, including the European People's Party (EPP) led by EU President Ursula von der Leyen, socialists, liberals, conservatives, greens and the left.
The parliamentarians supported an initiative by Sweden, Poland, the Netherlands and Spain calling on the European Commission to review the possibilities of "broad use of Russian assets in Ukraine's interests."
Proposal for a special mechanism
The authors of the new appeal propose transferring Russian assets into a special EU mechanism.
According to them, this would make it possible to "distribute potential legal and financial risks among EU countries."