Spanish push to unlock frozen Russian assets for Ukraine
The Spanish government, which is hosting Monday's meeting of the so-called Big Five in Madrid, aims to accelerate the legal discourse on the utilisation of frozen Russian assets, according to the Spanish daily "El Pais" on Monday.
According to the newspaper, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's government is keen to use Monday's foreign ministers' meeting to "give momentum to the debate that has reached a standstill on the utilisation of frozen Russian assets in the EU for further financing support for Ukraine" and to provide compensation for the losses incurred due to the Russian invasion.
Madrid believes the time has come to resume the legal debate to analyse the feasibility of this possibility, reads "El Pais".
As emphasised by the daily, this issue encounters resistance in countries like France and Germany, among others, because the profits from these assets are currently used to finance a loan for Ukraine worth £41.5 billion, which was agreed last year within the G7 group.
The Big Five in Spain
On Monday at the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the foreign ministers of Poland, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, and also the United Kingdom, will convene. The EU's chief diplomat Kaja Kallas and EU Commissioner for Defence Andrius Kubilius will also be present, with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrij Sybiha joining the meeting via video conference.
The first meeting in the so-called Big Five format was organised on 19th November 2024 in Warsaw, with the next one held on 12th December in Berlin. At the beginning of February, representatives of the Big Five countries also participated in a summit in Paris.
