{"id":464733,"date":"2025-10-01T03:29:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T03:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/464733\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T03:29:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T03:29:13","slug":"eu-seeks-to-deploy-russias-frozen-billions-to-boost-european-arms-sales-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/464733\/","title":{"rendered":"EU seeks to deploy Russia\u2019s frozen billions to boost European arms sales \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Finance ministers will take up the debate when they meet in Luxembourg Oct. 10.<\/p>\n<p>A big sticking point, especially for Belgium, is whether the Commission\u2019s legal reasoning behind the cash grab will hold up in court after Russia\u2019s former president <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/medvedev-threatens-eu-freaks-over-russian-frozen-asset-loan-plan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">threatened to sue<\/a> any \u201ceuro-degenerates\u201d who dare touch Moscow\u2019s \u201cproperty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The other big question is whether Brussels can use a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.consilium.europa.eu\/media\/jhlenhaj\/euco-conclusions-19122024-en.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">statement<\/a> by EU leaders from December to change the sanctions approval rules from unanimity to a qualified majority, thereby cutting Bratislava and Budapest out of the decision-making process.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Lawyers from the Council of the EU told<strong> <\/strong>the deputy finance ministers on Tuesday that all legal concerns could be addressed, two people on Tuesday\u2019s call said \u2014 a sentiment that is generally shared by <a href=\"https:\/\/verfassungsblog.de\/hungarian-veto-russian-central-bank-assets\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Armin von Bogdandy<\/a>, director at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe text does not say which conditions are applicable for qualified majority voting. So, we\u2019re still in high waters,\u201d said von Bogdandy, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mpil.de\/en\/pub\/institute\/personnel\/institute-management\/directors\/bogdandy.cfm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wrote<\/a> over the summer about overcoming the Hungarian veto when it comes to EU sanctions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut I see that such an argument is possible,\u201d he said, noting that the EU treaties allow qualified majority voting in extreme situations, such as when \u201ca member state goes squarely against basic EU solidarity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For the Commission to gather enough support, it will need to make a legal argument that doesn\u2019t set a precedent with far-reaching consequences. \u201cThey\u2019ll negotiate the legal reasoning \u2026 so that member states can say we see that this is very important, in this very narrowly subscribed situation,\u201d von Bogdandy said. \u201cIt makes perfect and legitimate sense.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Finance ministers will take up the debate when they meet in Luxembourg Oct. 10. A big sticking point,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[472,7057,365,33108,1112,2000,46647,299,5187,7058,12336,155245,20327,18421,1197,54490,95696,3209,152305,7339,12923,335],"class_list":{"0":"post-464733","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-christine-lagarde","9":"tag-defense-budgets","10":"tag-denmark","11":"tag-economic-governance","12":"tag-estonia","13":"tag-eu","14":"tag-eu-russia-relations","15":"tag-europe","16":"tag-european","17":"tag-european-defense","18":"tag-european-defense-policy","19":"tag-european-monetary-union","20":"tag-eurozone","21":"tag-finance-and-banking","22":"tag-investment","23":"tag-multinational-defense-programs","24":"tag-paolo-gentiloni","25":"tag-payments","26":"tag-risk-and-compliance","27":"tag-russia-sanctions","28":"tag-valdis-dombrovskis","29":"tag-war-in-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115296794280954271","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}