Norway may provide €100 billion European loan to Ukraine secured by the National Fund
9 November 02:18
Norway is considering acting as a guarantor of a European military loan to Ukraine worth more than €100 billion, pledging its €1.7 trillion sovereign wealth fund as collateral, The Times reports, "Komersant Ukrainian".
According to the newspaper, the initiative of Norwegian economists Howard Halland and Knut Anton Mork has received support in the country’s parliament: four of the nine political parties have already approved the proposal. Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre confirmed his readiness to consider this option and instructed to study possible mechanisms for its implementation. Liberal Party leader Guri Melby said that Norway should act as a guarantor of the loan to Ukraine, as Ukraine “is fighting not only for its freedom, but also for the freedom of the whole of Europe and ours.”
The discussion of the initiative takes place against the backdrop of Kyiv’s lack of funding and lingering disagreements in the EU over raising about €140 billion secured by Russian assets. Belgium, home to the Euroclear depository, which manages Russian capital, has opposed the scheme, The Times notes.
After Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Western countries froze the assets of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation worth more than €200 billion, of which approximately €190 billion were placed in Euroclear. Later, the European Commission developed a plan to provide Ukraine with a “reparations loan” secured by these assets, but Belgium expressed concerns about possible lawsuits and a negative impact on confidence in the EU financial sector.
At the same time, according to a Reuters source, the United States fully supports the European Union’s initiative to use frozen Russian assets to provide financial assistance to Ukraine and increase pressure on Moscow.
