EU eyes €200B secret weapon as Trump dominates Ukraine peace talks – POLITICO

Baltic and Nordic countries, Russia’s neighbors, think the money should be handed to Ukraine immediately. That position is endorsed by Poland, Czechia and the EU’s top diplomat, former Estonian PM, Kaja Kallas.

“I don’t take the argument that it’s legally problematic … we need [the] political will to do it,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys said in an interview with POLITICO, adding that skeptical capitals “must produce some stronger arguments why we aren’t doing it.”

But the opposing camp in Europe contains the big guns — France, Germany, Italy, Spain and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen — who fear that in confiscating the funds the EU would spook international investors and relinquish its greatest advantage in the peace talks.

“If you were to unfreeze [the assets] and give [them] to Ukraine, you don’t have it anymore and you can’t use it as a bargaining chip,” said an EU diplomat from the latter camp who, like others quoted in this article, was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive talks.

French President Emmanuel Macron, during a meeting with Trump in the Oval Office on Monday, insisted the Western allies could legally use the proceeds from the assets during the war, but insisted it would be illegal to seize the reserves themselves. He noted, however, that freezing them offered important leverage.

“It’s part of the negotiation at the end of the war,” he stressed.