{"id":229873,"date":"2025-12-12T21:46:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T21:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/229873\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T21:46:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T21:46:14","slug":"eu-bypasses-orban-veto-on-plan-to-fund-ukraine-loan-using-frozen-russian-assets-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/229873\/","title":{"rendered":"EU bypasses Orban veto on plan to fund Ukraine loan using frozen Russian assets \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

European Union<\/a> states have agreed to use emergency powers to bypass Hungarian<\/a> far-right prime minister Viktor Orban<\/a>\u2019s ability to veto the renewal of economic sanctions on Russia<\/a>. The move is a key step in a plan to use Russian state cash frozen in Europe to fund a loan to Ukraine<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The EU\u2019s sweeping regime of sanctions targeting Russia has to be renewed every six months. It creates persistent tensions in Brussels between Hungary and most other governments over Mr Orban\u2019s repeated threats to block the continuation of the sanctions. <\/p>\n

On each occasion Mr Orban has backed down, but not before Hungarian diplomats sought to extract concessions elsewhere in exchange for extending the economic sanctions, which are intended to hamper Moscow\u2019s ability to wage war in Ukraine. <\/p>\n

Firming up the stability of the sanctions is seen as crucial to a contentious plan to use \u20ac200 billion of Russian state assets, frozen in Europe, to finance a loan for Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\"HungarianHungarian prime minister Viktor Orban with Russian president Vladimir Putin (right). Photograph: Alexander Nemenov\/AP <\/p>\n

EU states on Friday approved the use of emergency powers to override Hungary\u2019s veto, and change how the sanctions are approved in future. The sanctions will only require a sizeable majority of member states, rather than the support of all 27. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s good that we found a legal way to stop the six-monthly kerfuffle,\u201d a diplomat from one EU state said.<\/p>\n

The changes only apply to sanctions keeping Russian central bank assets \u201cfrozen\u201d and not other measures targeting Russian industries or individuals with ties to Russian leader Vladimir Putin<\/a>\u2019s regime. <\/p>\n

European leaders have put a lot of stock in a complex plan to use Russian state assets to help Ukraine. The EU hopes to use sanctioned Russian central bank bonds trapped in Europe to fund a \u20ac90 billion loan to finance Ukraine\u2019s efforts on the battlefield. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ukraine could join EU next year under draft peace planOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The assets were in Euroclear, a Belgian securities depository that holds government bonds, when they were immobilised by EU sanctions following Russia\u2019s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. <\/p>\n

The proposal to use the assets to finance a loan for Ukraine has infuriated Moscow. <\/p>\n

The money would only be repaid to Russia if it agreed to compensate Ukraine for damage caused by the war. <\/p>\n

The Belgian government has withheld its support for the so-called \u201creparations\u201d loan, fearing it will face possible Russian retaliation and costly legal challenges. Belgian officials are concerned the plan could worry other countries and entities who have financial assets invested in Belgium. <\/p>\n

Negotiations are continuing behind the scenes to get Belgium to buy into the loan plan, with a decision expected at a summit of EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday. <\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s central bank has filed a legal case in Moscow seeking damages from Euroclear over the freezing of its assets, the Financial Times has reported. <\/p>\n

Europeans allies are concerned Ukraine will run short of money in the coming months. The loan idea would shore up Ukraine\u2019s finances for at least two years. <\/p>\n

The changes to the way the EU renews sanctions on Russia was criticised by Mr Orban as an \u201cunlawful\u201d circumvention of the requirement to take foreign policy decisions by unanimous agreement. <\/p>\n

Slovakia\u2019s populist prime minister Robert Fico said he will not support any proposal that involves \u201ccovering Ukraine\u2019s military expenses\u201d. <\/p>\n

Mr Fico, who has been a consistent opponent of EU support to Kyiv, said using the sanctioned Russian assets could \u201cdirectly jeopardise\u201d US efforts to broker a peace.<\/p>\n

The loan would require the backing of a large majority of EU leaders. It is unlikely the plan could go ahead without the approval of Belgium. <\/p>\n

The Financial Times has also reported that Ukraine could join the EU by January 1st, 2027, under proposals being discussed in US-mediated talks on ending the war.<\/p>\n

Talks on EU accession, a long-held goal for Kyiv as it seeks to move further out of Moscow\u2019s orbit, usually take many years.<\/p>\n

A European diplomat briefed on the plan said Ukrainian accession would be \u201cextremely difficult\u201d to achieve by 2027 and that it was not clear whether the EU leadership backed this.<\/p>\n

Several other European officials and diplomats said the target date was \u201cabsolutely impossible.\u201d \u2013 Additional reporting Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"European Union states have agreed to use emergency powers to bypass Hungarian far-right prime minister Viktor Orban\u2019s ability…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[6055,9,10,4893,2219,13,14,6,25126,11,12,15,16,5,65710,550,7,8,2264,26163,2263,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-229873","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-belgium","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-eu","12":"tag-european-union","13":"tag-featured-news","14":"tag-featurednews","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-hungary","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-robert-fico","23":"tag-russia","24":"tag-top-stories","25":"tag-topstories","26":"tag-ukraine-crisis","27":"tag-viktor-orban","28":"tag-vladimir-putin","29":"tag-world","30":"tag-world-news","31":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115708794814801931","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}