Belgium intends to transfer 1.7 billion euros to Ukraine, received in the form of taxes on income from frozen Russian assets.
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Bloomberg reported this on October 11, citing a statement by Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo.
There are frozen funds from Russia, there are income from [реінвестування] these funds. But both the first and second are the competence of the European Union. We can transfer to Ukraine the funds received in the form of taxes on this income, this is 1.7 billion euros, which should be used to support and restore Ukraine,” the Prime Minister is quoted as saying.
Bloomberg writes that the European Union has frozen Russian assets worth more than 200 billion euros. A significant part of them (according to Euronews, approximately 180 billion) is located in the European depository Euroclear, located in Belgium. Income from these funds is taxed at 25%, the agency explains.
It was clear to us from the very beginning: any taxes on Russian assets will not go to our budget, they will go directly to the Ukrainians, De Croo said.
According to him, the Belgian authorities plan to use the funds received to finance military and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, as well as to restore the country.
The EU authorities are discussing the possibility of using the frozen assets of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation at least from the fall of 2022. For these purposes, a special working group was created in February 2023, which was supposed to resolve this issue, including assessing the possibility of transferring profits from Russian assets to the restoration of Ukraine.
At the end of June, Bloomberg wrote that the working group concluded that there was no legal basis for confiscating these assets. In this regard, the group focused on exploring options for the temporary use of assets, including reinvestment to generate profits that could then be used to rebuild Ukraine.
Source: Racurs
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