Do you need to push or not take frozen Russians and do it? This is one of the questions to which the deputies will answer this Wednesday, March 12, by examining a resolution proposal to strengthen Ukraine support.
The text will be examined from 3.30 pm in the middle of a geopolitical tumult, marked by the acceleration of peace negotiations, with the Ukraine Agreement to an American proposal for 30 days with Russia. After a first debate on the Ukrainian theme in the hemicycle last week, once again it will be an opportunity for the deputies to seek to weigh.
Ukraine membership to the EU, presence of French soldiers
The resolution proposal requires that the European Union (EU), NATO and “the other allied countries” “continue and increase their political, economic and military support in Ukraine” against “Russian aggression.”
It also contains several points that will not stop debating, whose issue of the Ukraine membership process in the EU, of the presence in the Ukrainian soil of the French soldiers in case of a peace agreement, or that of the importation of Russian gas by the EU countries, to which the resolution requires “finishing”.
But the issue of Russian assets has been established particularly, while calls multiply in Europe in favor of a seizure. In the current state, the text “invites” the European Union to “use Russian and immobilized Russian assets now, (…) to support Ukrainian resistance and reconstruction of Ukraine.”
An opening of François Bayrou
An amendment co-firmed by three deputies of the Macronista Group for the Republic (EPR), including President Gabriel Attal, even offers to continue using these assets to “strengthen Europe’s defense capabilities.”
Positions contrary to those of the government, officially opposed to a seizure of the assets themselves (around 235 billion euros), apart from the interests they generate and that are already used to help kyiv.
Such confiscation could threaten the financial stability of Europe, Finance Minister Eric Lombard warned Tuesday. Prime Minister François Bayrou, however, seemed to open a door the same day considering that “using assets themselves” could “think that in the framework of the European Union.”
A majority could be difficult to find in the hemicle on this subject. It will depend in particular on the positioning of the deputies of EPR.
Faced with those who claim that such seizure would be contrary to international law, “today we have arguments that are in the direction of legal reliability, in terms of what is called customary law,” said Elator del Texto, Laurent Mazaury, deputy of the Independent Group Liot. But “countermeasures”, therefore, the use of assets “must be directly related to the conflict that they are supposed to resolve,” he added.
“The Russians have substantial assets for us at home, so we do not do too much to the intelligent with that,” said the attached modem Erwan Balaanant, hostile to the measure.
RN opposition
Supported by the socialists, environmentalists and horizons, the seizure of Russian assets is not a good option for Rebel France (LFI) and the National Rally (RN). The latter deposited an amendment to limit the use of money to the interest.
Marine Le Pen said he would not vote in favor of the resolution proposal. “I will not vote for any text in which there is commitment (…) support for the entry of Ukraine into the European Union,” he said. A paragraph of the text in fact invites the EU to “facilitate the process of membership of Ukraine to the Union.”
Its rapporteur, Laurent Mazaury, has deposited an amendment that replaces the word “facilitate” with “accompaniment”, agreeing that the first term could suggest “that certain rules are expressed.”
LFI did not communicate an official voting position in the text, but has deposited an amendment amended to suppress this paragraph about the adhesion to the EU, and another rewrites the resolution almost completely.
Source: BFM TV
