Overview

• European Commission spokesperson Balazs Ujvari said Brussels is not ready to discuss taking assets from Russian businesspeople and is considering only sovereign reserves blocked in EU jurisdictions.
• Economy commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said the bloc has no alternative to using Russian central-bank holdings as the basis for lending to Ukraine and reported ongoing technical work.
• The Commission confirmed there is still no practical agreement among EU finance ministers and said it will seek coordination with G7 partners.
• Brussels is asking countries such as the UK and Canada to apply similar schemes using Russian state assets immobilized in their jurisdictions to underpin loans.
• Most of Russia’s frozen reserves in Europe sit at Belgium-based Euroclear, the earlier loan concept referenced about €185 billion of roughly €210 billion there, and Russia has condemned any seizure as theft and threatened legal action.