EU approves bill on using income from Russian assets

Spokesman for the European Commission Eric Mamer has said that new legislation will be agreed upon on the taxation of income from the reinvestment of sovereign assets of the Central Bank of Russia frozen in the EU on December 12.

Mamer made these remarks at a briefing in Brussels, TASS reports.

“The Board of the European Commission will approve the proposal of the European Commission and the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell on the immobilised assets of the Central Bank of Russia,” he said.

Earlier, Reuters reported, citing documents from the European Commission, that the European Commission will unveil a plan on December 12 for the use of income taxes from reinvesting frozen Russian sovereign assets to support Ukraine, which will be submitted to the EU summit on December 14-15.

So far there is no unity among EU countries on this proposal. According to Reuters, the plan includes several issues requiring agreement that several EU countries have raised, in particular, the tax levied by the EU will not overlap with national taxes and fees. Reuters stressed that these proposals will be discussed at the EU summit this month after the European Commission approve them on December 12.

According to European Commission’s experts, income from Russian assets worth approximately 200 billion euros ($215 billion) frozen in European countries may be subject to taxation. The total profit from their reinvestments, in particular on the Euroclear platform based in Belgium, is about three billion euros ($3.2 billion), as of November 2023. Earlier, Prime Minister of Belgium Alexander De Croo said that Belgium, upon the decision of its government, plans to transfer special taxes from this amount worth 1.7 billion euros ($1.8 billion) to the Ukraine Support Fund in 2024.