News item | 5/17/2023 | 4:42 pm
The Council of Europe has today formally established the war damage registry in Ukraine. The register is a first step towards a compensation mechanism for citizens, companies and governments who are victims of war damage as a result of Russian aggression. The Schaderegister will be established in The Hague.
The register will receive, process and store damage claims. It will not itself judge the claims on their merits or award damages. The submitted claims are expected to be assessed at a later date through a compensation mechanism yet to be established. The ultimate goal is for Russia to pay for the damage caused by the war it has started against Ukraine.
In February this year, the Council of Ministers decided to offer The Hague as the location of the register, subject to broad and structural international political and financial support. That condition has now been met. Forty countries have already joined the register, including the Netherlands and Ukraine themselves. In the coming weeks, a small international team will set to work on actually setting up the register in The Hague. The Damage Register is expected to be fully operational in 2024. Ukraine has been closely involved in the preparations and will continue to play an important role in the operational phase.
The Damage Register was established within the framework of the Council of Europe, in the form of a so-called Enlarged Partial Agreement. This route enabled the damage register to be set up efficiently and quickly, with the support of a large number of countries. It also offers the possibility to countries that are not members of the Council of Europe to participate in the register.