EU group to investigate possible access to frozen Russian funds

The European Union will on Wednesday launch an ad hoc group to investigate how billions of dollars in frozen Russian funds, including central bank reserves, can be used for reconstruction work in Ukraine, the Swedish government said on Tuesday.

“The mandate is to contribute to mapping which funds have been frozen in the European Union … and secondly how to legally proceed to access those funds,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told a news conference in Stockholm.

Sweden currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency.

The ad hoc group will be headed by Anders Ahnlid, the head of Sweden’s National Board of Trade, a government agency.

Among the key assets will be Russian central bank funds expected to amount to tens of billions of dollars, Ahnlid said.