site.btaFinance Minister Vassilev Urges ECOFIN to Speed Up Efforts to Utilize Revenues from Frozen Russian Assets

Finance Minister Assen Vassilev attended the first regular meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) for 2024, which took place in Brussels, his ministry said on Tuesday.

The Belgian presidency of the Council of the EU presented its priorities in finance and economy for the first 6 months of the year. The Council endorsed the conclusions of the Alert Mechanism Report 2024 and the Annual Sustainable Growth Survey 2024. It also endorsed the 2024 euro area recommendation.

The European Commission presented an update on the economic and budgetary situation in Ukraine. The ministers discussed EU's financial support to Ukraine and progress in use of frozen and immobilized Russian assets.

Vassilev said that the situation in Ukraine is becoming critical and the EU must act quickly. He expressed regret that no agreement was reached in December on the new EU mechanism in support of Ukraine’s rehabilitation, reconstruction and modernization and voiced hope that this would happen in early February.

The Bulgarian Finance Minister argued that the EU cannot afford to bind its support for Ukraine to internal or other problems of the Union.

“Bulgaria has strongly supported Ukraine from the very beginning and will continue to do so,” Vassilev noted and called for speeding up efforts to utilize the revenues from frozen and immobilized Russian assets. All decisions related to the use of these assets must be in strict compliance with international law, he stressed.