EU Looking At Three Options For Ukraine Financing

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

59% : In a letter to the 27 EU member states, seen by RFE/RL, the choices include individual loans from EU member states, the EU raising money on the market, and already mooted "reparations loans" in which Brussels would leverage 176 billion euros ($204 billion) of frozen Russian state assets for a loan to Ukraine.
58% : That leaves Brussels with the reparations loan, which most EU member states see as the fairest option as it doesn't require EU borrowing from markets nor direct national contributions.
56% : The second option is that the EU would provide a loan to Ukraine by borrowing on the financial markets, using the bloc's triple-A rating.
55% : The text notes that such a loan would require EU member states "to provide legally binding, unconditional, irrevocable and on-demand guarantees, distributed amongst member states according to the GNI key to cover the situation where the borrowing needs to be repaid to investors in the absence of repayment by Ukraine.
55% : One alternative would be that the EU borrowing could be backed by the common EU budget.
54% : This would mean "a compulsory tailor-made debt contract with central securities depositories" such as the Belgium-based Euroclear in which EU member states provide "legally binding, unconditional, irrevocable, and on demand guarantees to the union, based on the GNI-key.
53% : The European Union is looking at three options for meeting Ukraine's financing needs, including a loan using frozen Russian assets, for next year and the year after, as the bloc tries to help blunt the effects of waning US support for Kyiv. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on November 17 spelled out the three options the bloc is facing in order to provide financing for Ukraine for 2026 and 2027.
52% : While not directly confiscating the Russian assets, they will be replaced with bonds issued by the European Commission and backed by EU member states.
51% : Russia could reclaim the assets in such a scenario, leaving EU member states to foot the bill.
50% : Alternatively, the paper also suggests that the EU can use the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), a vehicle created during the eurozone crisis, to provide financial assistance to struggling euro-area member countries.
49% : The first option would entail individual EU member states providing voluntary bilateral contributions such as grants to the union, based on their gross national income (GNI) with the European Commission then transferring that as nonrepayable financial aid to Kyiv.
48% : But current EU rules don't allow the budget to be used in this way for non-EU countries.
45% : This would, however, require a change of the ESM-treaty to expand the scope to Ukraine, create legal liabilities and interest costs for eurozone countries, along with a need to figure out a way of how non-Eurozone EU countries could contribute.
39% : " EU leaders are likely to decide on a way forward when they gather in Brussels on December 18, having failed to agreeon the reparations loan when they discussed the issue in October as Belgium, in which most of the Russian sovereign wealth assets are held, raised legal and political concerns.
39% : While this has happened ever since the restrictive measures were imposed over three years ago, there is no guarantee that this unanimity will last, notably as some EU capitals have questioned the usefulness of sanctions and Hungary previously having toyed with the idea of not giving a green light to a rollover.
37% : With the United States scaling back military and financial support, the EU has pledged to step up and fill the void.

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