The Russian war in Ukraine and a new dispute over a migration agreement marked the start of the European Union summit in Brussels on Thursday, June 29. At the two-day meeting, bloc leaders are pushing for a legal way to use frozen Russian assets to rebuild Ukraine. In addition, the 27 countries are facing discussions regarding an agreement to receive migrants, but amid strong reluctance from Poland and Hungary.
Migration and war in Ukraine are the focus of discussions at the European Union (EU) summit taking place in Brussels.
The start of the meeting, which will last until Friday, June 30, was marked by the recent failed rebellion of the Wagner mercenary group against the Russian military leadership and the possible consequences of the aborted uprising.
“It also threatens the stability of Russia, as we have seen. We have observed it and we have discussed the results among ourselves (…) But it was always clear that we can only observe it, what happens in Russia has nothing to do with other countries,” he said. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Days after a short-lived rebellion rocked Russia, and 18 months after Moscow invaded Ukraine, European Union leaders were meeting on Thursday to devise new ways to support Kyiv without offering hard-and-fast security promises. https://t.co/yrGFHRjFqJ
—The New York Times (@nytimes) June 29, 2023
Likewise, the leaders of the bloc of 27 countries discussed financial support for Ukraine, a country invaded by Russia more than 16 months ago.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell stressed that the Union should consider turning the European Peace Fund, which has been used to finance arms for Kiev, into a more permanent tool to arm the country in the long term.
“We are talking about security commitments. For my part, it means that military support for Ukraine must have a long run, during the war and after the war,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said when he arrived in an EU summit in Brussels (…) “So, the European Peace Fund for Ukraine may have to become a Ukraine Defense Fund, training must continue, the modernization of the Army must continue,” Borrell stressed.
The EU evaluates the use of frozen Russian assets for the reconstruction of Ukraine
Among the forms of long-term financing, Brussels is evaluating possible legal avenues to channel billions of dollars in frozen Russian assets – as a sanction for ordering the invasion of its neighboring country – towards projects that help rebuild Ukraine.
The EU indicates that it has blocked more than 200,000 million euros in assets of the Russian Central Bank, in response to the war that Moscow ordered since February 24, 2022. It also indicates that another 30,000 million euros of private assets of the Russian oligarchs.
Resources that would seek to redirect to kyiv. According to a draft summit conclusion, the leaders of several EU member states will ask the European Commission and other bodies to further investigate how they can put Russian money to work for Ukraine.
But during months of debate, some lawyers and experts have pointed out that there is no legal precedent for simply taking the frozen money, and the Kremlin warned last November that it would do everything possible to prevent the West from “looting” its assets.
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas stressed that Russia and its tycoons had a legitimate claim to the blocked assets, but Ukraine also had a legitimate claim against Moscow for the damage caused.
“It is fundamentally wrong for our taxpayers to pay for something we didn’t cause. It has to be in Russia, it has to be with its assets,” Kallas said.
Poland and Hungary, the main opponents of a migration agreement in the EU
Under the pact to reform the asylum system, known as the solidarity mechanism, reached earlier this month, each of the bloc’s 27 countries would be responsible for a certain number of migrants, but would not necessarily have to host them.
Nations unwilling to receive irregular immigrants and refugees arriving at their borders would help their host counterparts with cash, around 20,000 euros per person, team or staff.
But Poland and Hungary are against it. Warsaw is demanding a reform of the European Union’s border agency, Frontex, to deal more effectively with people smugglers.
In addition, it calls for more funds, noting that the countries responsible for securing the EU’s external borders should receive more financial resources and that the social benefits for people who enter the bloc should be limited.
“No to the forced relocation of immigrants, no to the violation of veto rights by individual states and no to the violation of the principle of sovereignty of decisions, no to sanctions imposed from Brussels,” said the prime minister. Polish, Mateusz Morawiecki.
Meanwhile, the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbánhas made it clear that his government will not join the new Brussels measures and maintains that his nation will not pay any type of compensation for migrants that it does not receive in its territory.
He is one of the leaders who is most opposed to a migrant reception plan. In 2015, he ordered the construction of a kilometer-long fence on his country’s border with Serbia, in which he invested 1.8 billion euros.
In addition, he has repeatedly indicated that he is in favor of closing the EU borders completely to migrants.
Undoubtedly, strong reluctance around which the rest of the countries that endorse the agreement will have to create complicated negotiations. All at a time when the flow of migrants is increasing, fueled by new wars such as Russia’s in Ukraine and the outbreak of the conflict in Sudan last April, as well as forced displacements due to natural disasters.
The forced exodus reached the record number of at least 110 million people in the world, according to the latest report from the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR)published on June 16.
With Reuters and EFE
