Belgium supports the idea of confiscating frozen assets of the Russian Central Bank totaling €280 billion but insists that a clear mechanism should be developed for this.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said this in a commentary to Reuters.
The prime minister said in Davos that his country was open to discussion of what can be done with interest accrued on frozen Russian assets and the assets themselves.
"We don't say no to asset confiscation. But we need to work on a mechanism. For example, they can be used as collateral for raising funds for Ukraine," he said.
Some senior Western officials fear that the seizure could be a risk to the global practice of central banks storing reserves with each other.
The largest part of the assets, which are mostly securities in which the Russian Central Bank has invested, is frozen in Euroclear, a depository based in Brussels.
De Croo explained that some of the securities mature and are hence being converted into cash. The transaction is taxed at 25%.
De Croo added that the tax on the frozen assets totaled about €1.3 billion in 2023 and would total about €1.7 billion in 2024.
Seizure of Russian assets to Ukraine’s benefit
It was reported earlier that the United States offered the other members of the Group of Seven to confiscate $300 billion of frozen Russian assets for the benefit of Ukraine. The plan for the seizure is to be agreed upon by the second anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced on January 3 that the United States, the European Union, and other countries have come close to resolving the issue of channeling Russian assets frozen in the West to the restoration of Ukraine.
Earlier, 
reported that the United States and other G7 countries were considering the confiscation of the assets of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation to the benefit of Ukraine amid problems with the approval of Western aid to Kyiv. The debate over money for Ukraine and migration policy has already led to a conflict within the Democratic Party.
Read also
Ukraine's Recovery: How to Change Critically Low Citizen Engagement Indicators?
The future has already arrived: blockchain technologies in the global economy and everyday life
