Belgium (Brussels Morning Newspaper) The European Union will most likely set up a fund intended for financing the reconstruction of Ukraine once the country is able to end its war with Russia, though details of the plan remain vague.
The plan can be seen in the draft conclusions of the planned European Council meeting scheduled for 30 May, when the leaders of the 27 member states will most likely greenlight the idea to help finance Ukraine’s post-war recovery.
This news follows on the European Commission proposal, presented on Wednesday, of setting up a facility of grants and loans dubbed “RebuildUkraine”, which would be modelled on the current EU recovery and resilience fund. While the Commission mentioned no concrete figures, the plan implies that the Union would copy the funding plan which depended on member states jointly borrowing on the market.
Current economic estimates of the cost of rebuilding Ukraine range from 500 million euro to up to 2 trillion euro, depending on the length and intensity of the remainder of the war in Ukraine, and will be very difficult to predict correctly in advance.
The leaders’ meeting draft conclusions, seen by Reuters, note that the Ukraine reconstruction platform should be set up by bringing together the Ukrainian government, member states, the European Union and other partners, financing institutions and organisations.
“The platform will be supported by a new EU solidarity instrument combining EU and Member States’ contributions,” the draft reads, without making any mention whether the new instrument would depend on joint EU borrowing, a move unlikely to be well-received by Germany.
The EU is reportedly also considering seizure of frozen Russian assets in the EU as one of the possible sources of financing the recovery fund. “The European Council welcomes the efforts made with a view to providing for appropriate confiscation measures, including exploring options aimed at using frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine’s reconstruction,” the draft said.