Belgian Prime Minister opposes EU plan to use Russian assets to help Ukraine
28 November 11:17
The European Union’s plan to use frozen Russian state assets to financially support Ukraine could jeopardize the chances of a potential peace agreement to resolve the war. This was stated by Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever, as quoted by the Financial Times, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
“Hastily promoting the proposed reparations loan scheme will lead to the fact that we – as the EU – will actually prevent the achievement of a final peace agreement,” the Belgian Prime Minister wrote in a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
In his letter to von der Leyen, he writes that this proposal could damage the reputation of Euroclear, the Brussels-based securities depository that holds Russian assets.
“It would be unfair and dishonest to expect that, while the benefits of such a scheme would be for everyone, the costs and risks would be borne by Belgium,” de Wever wrote.
In the letter, the head of the Belgian government expressed surprise at what he called the EU leaders’ “complete lack of understanding” of the legal and financial risks.
He noted that the Commission has not yet presented any draft legal text, and the “options paper” recently provided to capitals does not address Belgium’s concerns.
The EC will present a draft legislative proposal on the use of assets to support Kyiv in 2026 and 2027 by the end of the week, according to Reuters, and hopes to address Belgium’s concerns, EU officials said.
Von der Leyen names 3 scenarios for financial aid to Ukraine
In a letter to the EU member states dated November 17, Von der Leyen announced three possibilities to financially support Ukraine: grants from individual countries, new joint debt, or the use of frozen Russian assets. The text of the document was obtained by Reuters and the FT. In total, Ukraine will need 135.7 billion euros over the next two years.
The head of the European Commission noted that the decision on financing Ukraine should be quick and ready for approval at the next meeting of the European Council in December.
“Given the urgency of the situation, the different complexity of the options and the need to start payments by the second quarter of 2026, any of the proposed options can serve as a transitional and temporary solution,” von der Leyen emphasized. As an example, she noted that non-repayable support from EU countries or a loan through borrowing “could be interim solutions” until the adoption of a new long-term community budget, which will come into force in 2028 and could serve as a guarantee for EU-funded loans.
Belgium is against the transfer of frozen Russian assets to Ukraine
At the EU summit in October, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever said that he would not support the European initiative to use Russia’s frozen assets to support Ukraine unless the rest of the EU countries share the possible risks.
“I want full risk sharing, because the risk is high. <...> We want guarantees that if the money needs to be returned, each member state will contribute,” De Wever said. According to him, in a number of countries other than Belgium, “there are huge amounts of Russian money,” but representatives of these countries “are silent about it.” “If we act, then we all act together. This is European solidarity,” the politician added.
The EU countries agreed that Belgium should be provided with security guarantees, but not all of them have yet spoken about specific conditions. It is expected that the final decision on whether to transfer frozen assets to Ukraine will be made at the EU summit on December 18-19.
