European Parliament accelerates launch of reparations mechanism for Ukraine

The European Parliament has put the Convention on the Establishment of an International Claims Commission for Ukraine, a key element of the future compensation mechanism for damage caused by the Russian aggression, to an accelerated vote.

The relevant procedural decision was supported during the plenary session in Strasbourg, and the final vote is expected in the coming days.

From fixing the damage to real payments

The approval of the Convention effectively means a transition from the stage of collecting evidence to the legal determination of compensation amounts. The future Commission will consider applications, assess evidence and decide on the amount of compensation to victims.

This body will be part of a broader international mechanism envisaged by the 2023 Reykjavik Declaration, which includes:

Damage Register

Commission for Consideration of Claims

Compensation Fund

The first stage has already been implemented: The Damage Register for Ukraine, which became operational in 2024, accumulates tens of thousands of claims from victims.

How the Commission will work

The Commission is being established as an independent international body within the Council of Europe. It will:

consider claims from individuals and legal entities, as well as the state of Ukraine

determine the amount of compensation

form legally binding decisions

It is important that we are talking about damage caused since February 24, 2022, with the possibility of extending the mandate to events since 2014.

Challenges: Finance and Politics

Despite progress, the launch of the mechanism depends on a number of conditions:

at least 25 ratifications by states

formation of a compensation fund

determination of sources of funding (in particular, the issue of using frozen Russian assets)

Without the actual filling of the fund, even the adopted decisions of the Commission may remain declarative.

Historical precedent

The creation of such a Commission could become the first large-scale example of holding a state financially liable without its consent since World War II. Its decisions would have the status of internationally recognized obligations.