The effort could be funded through assets seized from Moscow, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has said
The UK will host a conference on Ukraine’s recovery next year, as the nation’s conflict with Moscow continues, the British Foreign Office has announced.
This year’s Ukraine Recovery Conference opens on Monday in Lugano, Switzerland. Britain plans to take a place on next year’s supervisory board and coordinate efforts between Kiev and other countries to rebuild the nation, with an office expected to be set up in London.
“We have led on support for Ukraine during the war and will continue to lead in supporting the Ukrainian Government’s Reconstruction and Development Plan,” UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss’ statement prepared for the Lugano conference says.
Meanwhile, the UK intends to follow Canada’s lead and seize Russian assets in the country, and use them to support Kiev, according to Truss.
Speaking to Parliament last week, she said the money should be distributed to those who have suffered from the fighting in Ukraine.
“This is an issue that we are working on jointly with the Home Office and the Treasury, but I certainly agree with the concept. We just need to get the specifics of it right,” she told MPs.
The foreign secretary added that new legislation “most probably, but not necessarily” would be required to achieve this goal. Citing the example of Canada, Truss referred to the Canadian Senate’s decision in late June to empower the authorities to confiscate and sell assets seized from Russia after the launch of its military operation in Ukraine.
The UK has frozen the assets of a number of Russian tycoons, airlines, and Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank.
Last week, the G7 group announced it would continue to support Ukraine and explore “viable options” to meet Kiev’s needs in humanitarian aid and reconstruction, “including using frozen Russian assets.”
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Berlin wants to reconfigure EU voting laws to strip Kiev of a potential leverage, a UK outlet is reporting
Germany fears that if Ukraine becomes a full-fledged EU member, Berlin will see its influence within the bloc erode, The Daily Telegraph reported on Saturday, citing a senior diplomatic source.
Olaf Scholz, Germany’s chancellor, apparently discussed the matter with EU leaders in Brussels behind closed doors. According to the outlet’s source, he urged an overhaul of the EU treaty system before Ukraine’s membership bid is approved.
At the heart of the concern is the EU voting system that factors in the number of countries voting and their respective populations, a reality that would grant Ukraine a strong leverage within the bloc. Moreover, according to an analysis by the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, if Kiev joins the EU, it would be its fifth-largest member, but also the poorest.
It is also possible that Kiev may join efforts with Poland or other Eastern and Central European nations to sideline such core EU states as Germany and France.
“This would shift the balance of power within the EU further away from Germany and France more towards Central and Eastern Europe, where the countries, together with the Nordics, for the first time would become a more sizeable bloc in terms of voting power,” Dr Nicolai von Ondarza, of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, told The Telegraph.
With that in mind, the German leader reportedly aims to update the EU voting system in such a way that would prohibit the emergence of various power factions within the bloc to get extra funds from their wealthy Western European neighbors. According to the outlet, Scholz also wants to ditch national vetoes.
In late June, the EU granted candidate status to Ukraine, a move that has been widely regarded as a “symbolic” gesture amid the nation’s ongoing conflict with Russia.
“This does not mean that Ukraine will soon be part of the European Union. It is a process of many years with a lot of reforms which will be very difficult and, for us, it is very important to give a strong symbolic signal,” Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said at the time.
French President Emmanuel Macron also warned Kiev that EU membership could still be decades away. The timeline largely hinges on the condition that Ukraine has to enforce a slew of economic, democratic and anti-corruption reforms.
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