The EU is willing to give economic support to kyiv once the war is over, through a fund managed by Brussels
European leaders will discuss creating a fund to help rebuild Ukraine after the war with Russia ends. This is stated in the draft of a document that will be discussed at the summit that will take place in Brussels this Thursday and Friday and in which the US president, Joe Biden, will also participate. This fund would be, according to the same text, of a “fiduciary” nature; that is, that the payments will be agreed between the two parties, the EU and kyiv.
The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, has referred in recent days to the destruction being carried out by Vladimir Putin’s forces in Ukraine. “He wants to turn the country into the Syria of Europe,” he said just a week ago. And about Mariupol, the port city that is reluctant to fall into Russian hands, he assured on Monday that what is happening there “is a massive war crime.”
Faced with this bleak panorama “and taking into account the destruction and enormous losses” caused by the Russian military aggression, the leaders of the Twenty-seven “commit to providing support to the Ukrainian government for its immediate needs.” In addition, “once the Russian attack has ceased”, Europe will offer its support “for the reconstruction of a democratic Ukraine”, the document promises.
The European Council will therefore agree to “create a solidarity trust fund” with the country, whose preparations will begin “without delay”, says the text negotiated by the European governments. The draft does not, however, offer details about the size of that aid package or the mechanisms through which it will be deployed. It does propose, instead, the organization of an international conference to raise funds.
Some leaders have even proposed that the assets frozen by allies of Russian oligarchs and state companies be used for the reconstruction of the country, in addition to the 300,000 million dollars in reserves seized from the Central Bank of Russia.
The president of the European Council, the Belgian Charles Michel, mentioned last Friday the possibility of creating a fund of this type, during a telephone conversation with the Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski. His idea is that this economic package will serve as the “backbone” of the reconstruction of Ukraine when the war ends. In the same sense, the vice president of the European Commission, Maros Sefcovic, spoke in early March, who assured on Tuesday that the EU will be at the side of Ukraine to “rebuild” the country after its victory over the Russian invasion. “We will open our arms to Ukraine in our common home of peace, democracy and prosperity, called Europe,” he added.
Does not specify sanctions
As long as there is no ceasefire, the EU has pledged to continue supporting kyiv. To a first support fund of 500 million euros for the purchase of lethal weapons and first aid materials, a second will soon be added, of another 500 million, as Josep Borrell announced yesterday, after the meeting of the ministers of Exteriors.
The summit of leaders this Thursday and Friday will also discuss a possible fifth package of sanctions on Russia, in which the veto on imports of Russian oil and gas flies. The idea, however, does not have – far from it – the unanimity of the block. Countries like Germany and Hungary refuse any energy sanctions to Moscow, due to its high dependency on supply.
That is why the draft mentioned above contains hardly any details about the future punishments to Moscow. It only mentions that the EU is “ready to move quickly with more coordinated sanctions” against Russia and Belarus, which Brussels considers complicit in the aggression against Ukraine.
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