Olaf Scholz has responded sharply to the Polish president, who wanted to confiscate hundreds of billions of euros belonging to Russia.
The German Chancellor reproached Andrzej Duda for short-sightedness and explained what would follow this decision.
The dispute between the politicians took place at a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels, writes the Financial Times (FT).
For a long time now, one of the pressing issues for the European Union, Britain and the United States has been the frozen assets of the Russian Federation.
The West has developed a mechanism to manage the income generated by these assets.
But there are also those in the European Union who advocate the complete confiscation of everything that belongs to the Central Bank of Russia.
We are talking about approximately 260 billion euros (about 27 trillion rubles).
In Brussels, the President of Poland outlined his position on Russian assets. Duda spoke in favor of confiscation.
Scholz did not support him and reacted with irritation to the politician’s short-sightedness, and also pointed out the deceit of the Polish side.
"You don't understand how this will affect the stability of our financial markets. <...> You don't even use the euro!" the FT quotes the German chancellor as saying.
The publication notes that Scholz's anger was caused by the fact that Duda still cannot move away from the idea of confiscating Russian assets.
Berlin has repeatedly rejected the idea before, but Warsaw and a number of other EU members continue to push the plan.
But independent analysts note that such a move could have a number of consequences that are difficult to predict.
But it is clear that such a decision would damage international confidence in EU financial institutions and harm the European currency.
