Portugal has 18 million euros frozen under the guarantee
“We in Portugal have assets seized, frozen, assets that belong to people who are on the power list in the order of 18 million euros”, announced the minister, who spoke to journalists on the sidelines of the North Atlantic Council meeting that brings together the NATO Foreign Ministers at the Palace of Parliament, in the capital of Romania, and ends today.
Gomes Cravinho was asked about the proposal of the European Commission made today to the Member States of the European Union (EU) for the temporary seizure of assets frozen to oligarchs, within the scope of those probably approved against Russia, and respective application to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine .
Emphasizing that he had not yet analyzed the proposals of the European Commission, Cravinho stressed that “in relation to the use, the loss of these assets in favor of the State and later in favor of the reconstruction of Ukraine” Portugal has its laws.
Gomes Cravinho highlighted that there are circumstances in which assets are lost to the State, giving as an example the case of drug traffickers who “see their vehicles or ships lost to the State”.
“But we have our laws, Portugal is a state of law and will function according to its laws. We still don’t know what the European Commission’s proposals are, we will look into them for sure. But there is a distinction to be made between freezing and loss of these assets in favor of the State, in favor of other purposes”, he underlined.
Cravinho noted that a court decision will always be necessary, which needs to become final, and stressed that “the simple facts of being on a guarantee list does not mean that the sanctioned person loses the right to the assets, the assets are frozen”.
The European Commission today declared to the Member States of the European Union (EU) the temporary seizure of the assets frozen to oligarchs, within the scope of the probable ??s against Russia, and the respective application for the financial reconstruction of Ukraine.
According to data from Brussels, until November 25, the total amount of Russian private assets frozen within the EU, under the Common Foreign and Security Policy, amounts to almost 18.9 million euros.
The foreign currency reserves of the Russian Central Bank immobilized — both in the G7 (group of the seven richest countries) and in the EU — are around an estimated total amount of 300 billion dollars (about 289 billion euros, at the exchange current).
In a video released on the social network Twitter, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, explained that the intention is to create, in the short term, a “structure to manage” the confiscated assets and invest them, using the profits to finance the Ukraine.
In a second step, after the lifting of guarantees (which are now in their eighth package since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24), the funds are to be used to compensate for the damage caused by Russia.
The seizure of assets cannot be definitive and must come from the Member States, since the EU does not have legal powers to do so, having to be returned once the ongoing conflict is over.