Helen McEntee has urged the EU to keep hundreds of billions of euros in frozen Russian assets under consideration as member states search for ways to sustain Ukraine’s defence effort through the approaching winter.
About €210bn in Russian central bank assets were immobilised days after Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Roughly €185bn of that sum remains held by Euroclear, the Belgian securities depository.
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EU leaders failed last December to secure Belgium’s agreement to use the assets as backing for a long-term loan aimed at covering Ukraine’s military and budgetary needs.
Instead, the bloc agreed to raise €90bn in joint debt for Ukraine over a three-year period, invoking the enhanced cooperation mechanism to bypass objections from Hungary.
Ukraine has warned of a €27bn gap in its defence budget as it confronts a sharply intensified Russian air campaign involving jet-powered drones and ballistic missiles.
Speaking ahead of an EU defence ministers’ meeting in Brussels this morning, Ms McEntee said the frozen assets must remain part of the discussion.
“We need to keep everything on the table, including the frozen [Russian assets,” she said.
“It’s obviously very clear from some of our colleagues the challenges that are there. They haven’t been fully dealt with or haven’t been fully resolved, and so there was a very clear commitment from the Commission to further explore the challenges that have been raised by colleagues and to see is there a way forward. We need to keep that on the table.”
Ms McEntee said progress had been made in recent weeks towards releasing approximately €6.6bn from the European Peace Facility (EPF) for Ukraine. The fund, which partially reimburses member states for weapons and other military equipment supplied to Kyiv, had been blocked by Hungary’s outgoing prime minister Viktor Orban.
“We need to make sure that as much of this year’s money as possible is provided, all of it is provided, and that as early on as possible next year we are providing further assistance,” said Ms McEntee.
“Last year Russia attacked about 75% of the critical infrastructure in Ukraine. It’s very clear that that’s going to start happening again. It’s already happening. So ensuring that countries provide that bilateral support, as well as the other mechanisms I’ve mentioned, is really, really important.”
She also said the EU must maintain sanctions pressure on Russia, pointing to the UN General Assembly in New York as an opportunity to highlight the consequences of the war for UN members. The conflict, she said, was affecting “not just Ukraine, not just Europe, but now in global food security, in particular in the Global South”.
EU discusses new mutual defence mechanism in event of Russian attack
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Russia planning more acts of sabotage in Europe, says Kallas
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said, on her arrival at the meeting, that intelligence indicated Russia was preparing further acts of sabotage across Europe.
“We need to be vigilant because we see in the intelligence that Russia is planning more sabotage acts and attacks against our democracy – to divide our society, to intimidate our societies [into] refraining [from helping] Ukraine,” she said.
Against the backdrop of escalating hybrid attacks on European territory, Ms McEntee said the Government would examine a possible new mutual assistance mechanism proposed by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen during her State of the Union address on 16 September.
Ms von der Leyen said Europe needed a “counter hybrid playbook” that would enable member states to respond collectively to attacks which “fall below armed aggression but clearly threaten our national security”.
She proposed a mechanism “to flank NATO’s Article 4”, describing it as an Emergency Security Protocol under which “when triggered by one member state, all member states would convene to coordinate a European response, to deter further escalation, and to mitigate the impact”.
The EU already has a mutual assistance clause under Article 42.7 of the Lisbon Treaty.
Senior defence officials have said Ms von der Leyen’s proposal was intended to “operationalise” that provision as attacks on EU member states become more frequent.
Read more: Latest Ukraine stories
Ms McEntee said: “We need to look at all of these options. Obviously, we have Article 42.7, something that Ireland has contributed to in the past.
“It’s important that whatever we put in place would respect each individual member state’s constitutional position [and] at the same time, reflect the fact that we are seeing more and more hybrid attacks.
“We’re starting to see this on European soil, whether it was the airport in Leipzig [in Germany], whether it was consistent breaches of airspace into European member states.
“We need to be prepared. We need to be able to not just respond when incidents happen, but also [to] preempt possible escalations, work with member states, work with each other, to make sure that we have a strong response in place should something happen, or to try and prevent that from happening.”
She added: “There certainly is an appetite there. Something that would complement Article 42.7… is something that would be welcome and certainly would be helpful.”
The Brussels meeting comes as Russia steps up its attacks on Ukraine and expands its targets to include a wider range of civilian and commercial infrastructure.
Recent strikes have hit passenger trains, petrol stations and communications networks.
The death toll has continued to climb as Moscow increasingly deploys jet-powered drones, which are more difficult to detect and intercept.
With winter approaching, Russia is widely expected to pursue a sustained campaign against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
