Unfreezing Russian assets hinges on EU political will - MP Vlasenko
The adoption of draft law No. 7520-d "On the jurisdictional immunities of foreign states and their property" will not ensure the use of frozen Russian assets in the EU, since this issue depends on the political will of the member states, said Serhiy Vlasenko, a member of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Legal Policy.
The relevant draft law defines the boundaries of the jurisdictional immunity of foreign states and their property on the territory of Ukraine.
"I think that the prospect of adopting this law exists, it is not as fast as we would all like. But resolving this issue in Ukraine at the legislative level will not allow us to confiscate Russian assets in the international sense. We must work with the European Union now," he said during a speech at the IV Conference "Compensation for Damage Caused by Aggression: Law & War" on Tuesday.
According to the People's Deputy, the main problem lies in the lack of political will at the EU level.
"The arguments that I hear are completely different. It's not that this is not regulated in Ukraine. Of course, it needs to be regulated in Ukraine. And, as I will note, a little later or a little earlier Ukraine will resolve this issue. And this is the easiest issue that we can resolve. But the adoption of this law will not resolve the key issue that we have. This is the confiscation of Russian frozen assets that are under the jurisdiction of the countries of the European Union, the United States and other states of the world," Vlasenko said.
He added that the issue of confiscation of Russian assets remains in the focus of the Verkhovna Rada.
"On the issue of confiscation of Russian assets, we made an attempt to start discussing the possibility of confiscating Russian assets under interstate decisions of the European Court of Human Rights. This could theoretically be the first step towards lifting sovereign immunity. We are moving here - I won't say that it is too fast, but there is also movement in this direction, and it is important," the MP said.
On April 15, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted as a basis the draft law No. 7520-d "On the jurisdiction of immunities of foreign states and their property".
As reported, the European Commission is considering the possibility of using Russian frozen assets worth about EUR 170 billion, which are currently stored in the Euroclear financial depository in Brussels. It is assumed that EUR 140 billion of these funds will go to a "reparation loan" to Ukraine. It is expected that this issue will be considered at the EU summit on October 23-24.
Meanwhile, Politico previously reported that Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever expressed concerns about such plans at a recent informal EU summit in Copenhagen. He said that the European Commission's scheme for using frozen Russian assets is essentially tantamount to confiscation. According to him, "the difference between a 'reparation loan' and confiscation is in fact extremely small, and if these assets remain frozen for a long time, such a scheme can be regarded as quasi-confiscation." De Wever demands more guarantees for his country from the European Union, speaking about the possible legal consequences of such a step. The Financial Times reported that EU countries have increased pressure on Belgium due to its slowness in granting permission to use frozen Russian assets under its jurisdiction to support Ukraine.