The subject should be on the menu of Joe Biden’s state visit to Paris, in the wake of the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings. After walking down the Champs-Elysées together, Saturday June 8, the American president and Emmanuel Macron are expected to discuss new ways to support Ukraine. A point at the heart of tense negotiations between Washington, Paris and Berlin, two weeks before the G7 summit, from June 13 to 15 in Italy.
The Biden administration is hoping for a compromise by the summit of the seven richest democracies on the planet. Starting this summer, she plans to offer a new package of loans in favor of kyiv – of the order of 50 billion dollars (around 46 billion euros) – without waiting for the result of the American election in November and the possible victory of Donald Trump. But the project is sparking heated debates over the best way to use the interest generated by Russian assets frozen by Western sanctions since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
For Washington, these American loans could be partly secured on the income from these assets under Western sanctions. The United States believes that this idea must be “explored”so that Russia “hold even more accountability for what it did to Ukraine, as well as thinking about long-term reconstruction” from the country. However, as National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby acknowledges, they cannot “do this unilaterally”because it is a “truly international effort”requiring in particular “cooperation and support” of Europeans, and therefore a “form of consensus”. A recent meeting of G7 finance ministers in Stresa, Italy, May 23-25 failed to reach a compromise, although the United Kingdom and Canada sided with the United States. .
“Avoid any form of blocking”
On the other hand, Paris and Berlin oppose such use, under the pretext that the interests in question are already intended to finance the European Peace Facility (EFF), the community instrument which makes it possible to finance deliveries weapons in kyiv. For them, the approximately 2.7 billion euros in interest expected each year will allow the purchase of arms and ammunition for Ukraine, as well as the modernization of its defense industry.
The Europeans know that they are all the more essential on the issue since most of the frozen Russian assets are deposited in continental banks. On May 27, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, announced that “90% of exceptional profits [provenant des avoirs russes gelés] will be allocated through the FEP. “We must avoid any form of blockage to using these new resources,” he added. This last clarification is important, because Hungary blocked, at the end of May, seven legal texts necessary for the payment by the FEP of some 6.6 billion euros in financing to reimburse member states.
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