The European Commissioner for Economy, Productivity, Implementation and Simplification, Valdis Dombrovskis, noted the “relatively cautious approach” advocated by Fernando Navarrete Rojas (EPP, Spanish), the European Parliament’s rapporteur on the ‘digital euro’ package (see EUROPE 13743/11, 13744/15), on Tuesday, 4 November, in Sofia, during an interview with several media outlets, including Agence Europe.
“We think it’s important to move forward with this digital euro project — both in the sense of sustaining the role of central bank money in an increasingly digital economy, and also to strengthen the EU’s strategic autonomy by setting up a kind of European-based, pan–euro area payment system and relevant infrastructure”, he continued, noting a certain slowness in Parliament’s work.
Mr Dombrovskis is due to meet Parliament’s rapporteur on Thursday 6 November in Brussels.
Frozen Russian assets. On Tuesday, the European commissioner also provided an update concerning discussions regarding Russian assets frozen in Belgium. He indicated that the Commission was currently focusing its efforts on the option of a ‘reparation loan’, in accordance with the European Council’s request made on Thursday 23 October (see EUROPE 13737/1), without, however, ruling out other possibilities.
“Just coming up with another standard macrofinancial assistance programme is not an option. The IMF is saying it is worried about Ukraine’s debt sustainability, and so we cannot just continue giving more loans(...) The reparation loan, on the one hand, solves the problem of Ukraine’s debt sustainability, as it doesn’t endanger that sustainability because it only needs to be repaid once Russia pays reparations. And it stops short of confiscating Russian assets, which would then raise another set of questions on using the euro as an international reserve currency”, the commissioner told a small group of journalists, including Agence Europe.
Mr Dombrovskis also revisited the Belgian government’s concerns, describing them as “understandable” (see EUROPE 13722/2). According to the European Commission’s Legal Service, the legal and litigation risks, which have been examined, are considered “contained”, said the commissioner. He nevertheless stressed the need for guarantees.
“The exact mechanisms are still to be discussed. Our basic thinking was that we would aim for Member State guarantees now, at least for the next two years, which could be taken over by the EU guarantee [during] negotiations on the next Multiannual Financial Framework as of 2027. [...] Other variations are possible, but that was the baseline scenario we were considering”, he said.
Mr Dombrovskis also advocated moving forward quickly: “Our initial thinking is that we would be able to start [...] disbursing [funds] to Ukraine already in the early second quarter of next year. The longer we now run delays, the more challenging it will become. It may raise the question of transitional funding solutions – so the sooner the better”. (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)