The countries of the European Union (EU) plan to quickly adopt a decision on an indefinite freeze of Russian sovereign assets immobilized due to aggression against Ukraine. This will bypass the Hungarian veto and maintain leverage over the Kremlin in peace negotiations.

This was reported in the Financial Times, citing officials familiar with the plans.. The final decision involves the use of emergency powers to override individual country vetoes on extending sanctions and must be taken before the EU summit on December 18-19.

The topic of the further fate of the frozen assets of the Russian Federation (about 210 billion euros of them are immobilized in the European Union) was raised before the discussion of providing new macro-financial assistance to Ukraine. Diplomats believe the i's should be dotted in the coming days.

The funding issue could be brought up for consideration by EU leaders as early as next week.. But the voting procedure itself - bypassing the principle of unanimity when making sanctions decisions - creates the risk of sharp discontent on the part of Hungary and other capitals opposing this measure.

The EU has taken important decisions in the past contrary to the position of individual members. In particular, Poland and Hungary opposed the decision on migration policy, and this spoiled relations between European capitals for a long time and caused serious disputes.

Hungary opposes any additional aid to Kyiv and regularly threatens to block the extension of sanctions. EU officials fear Prime Minister Viktor Orban will make good on a threat if the Trump administration decides to unilaterally lift US sanctions on Russia.

This week, Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said that the European Commission's proposal to provide Ukraine with a " The main idea of \u200b\u200bthe proposal is to repay the loan only if the Russian Federation pays post-war reparations to Ukraine.

To avoid the risk that sanctions could be lifted, the European Commission proposed using emergency powers, which are usually used in economic crises.. This will allow the sanctions on assets to be extended indefinitely, but a number of conditions must first be met:.

Now the EU can only use income received from sovereign Russian assets to support Ukraine, and not these assets themselves. In recent years, Ukraine has regularly asked for the confiscation of these funds as compensation for the destruction caused by Russia.

“Clean” confiscation frightened the EU countries with its likely legal consequences and the creation of a precedent for the alienation of state assets at the international level. Therefore, the EU came up with an alternative plan, which they called the “reparation loan”.

Thus, the European Commission proposes to use the principal amount of frozen Russian assets, which is estimated at 140 billion euros, for a loan to Ukraine.. It is assumed that:.