The European Union is ramping up pressure on reluctant member states to agree to new loans for war-torn Ukraine, telling them that if they do not want to accept the use of frozen Russian assets, they will have to foot the bill themselves, reports Politico.
The idea of new loans is rejected by the majority of EU governments. For this reason, the Commission wants to pressure them to approve the use of Russia’s frozen assets.
The European Commission is fully aware that its Plan B – financing Ukraine’s defense through eurobond loans – is even worse for the governments of member states than using frozen Russian assets.
Governments traditionally hostile to additional spending, especially Germany and the Netherlands, reject any proposal that would imply a higher tax burden. On the other hand, countries somewhat more predisposed to spending – Italy and France – are in a precarious economic situation that does not allow them to make new expenditures.
This is also the Commission’s argument – European officials are betting on the idea that Belgium, the country that hosts almost all frozen Russian assets and has expressed doubts about the legitimacy of the plan to confiscate them, along with other countries that have raised objections in silence, will be convinced to accept the plan, if the alternative would be a direct loan made by the EU.
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