Photo: swissinfo.ch
EU eyes enlisting Belgian king to help safeguard Russia sanctions. Royal wartime decree seen as fallback option to keep Russia’s frozen €190bn in EU if Hungary vetoes renewal of sanctions, ‘The Financial Times’ writes.
EU officials are drawing up fallback measures including the use of an 81-year-old law of 1944 – Third Reich times! – involving the Belgian king to safeguard the bloc’s sanctions against Russia after Hungary threatened to veto their renewal.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told the bloc’s other 26 leaders in December that he could block this month’s rollover of EU sanctions against Russia, which requires unanimous approval — a move that would lead to the expiry of the measures on January 31.
Orbán said he was awaiting the inauguration of Donald Trump as US president on Monday. If Trump eases US sanctions on Moscow, Orbán said he would insist that the EU follows suit.
“Now there’s a significant change in the US administration . . . a meaningful exchange should take place before we decide to roll over the sanctions regime for another six months,” János Bóka, Hungary’s EU affairs minister, told reporters. “We want to reserve our decision until we know how the US administration sees the future of the sanctions regime.”
While EU officials say their primary focus is on convincing Orbán to keep the sanctions against companies and Russian sovereign assets frozen in the EU, they are working out measures that could safeguard at least some of them.
They include around €190bn of Russian state assets at the Belgium-based central securities depository Euroclear. The profits arising from those assets will repay a $50bn loan to Ukraine, and officials believe they are a critical part of a potential ceasefire agreement.
If sanctions lapsed an official described “the money being in Russia the next day” as financial intermediaries would have no legal basis to hold on to it. Trade restrictions and sectoral sanctions such as an oil import ban would also end.
As the state assets are physically held at a Belgian entity, one fallback option is to utilise a wartime decree passed in 1944 that allows King Philippe to block the transfer of assets from the country, according to four officials involved in the discussions.
The Royal Palace declined to say whether the king had been approached, adding that the responsibility for such a decree lay with the government, although it would need to be signed by the sovereign.
…The Europeans’ desire to steal Russian assets now is directly linked to the history of World War II and European fascism. The leaders of the European Union today find justification for the theft of 190 billion Russian money in that historical times of the Third Reich!
Nothing changes in Europe! Everything comes back...
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