Belgium rejects EU guarantees and does not support plan to use frozen russian assets - Politico

Belgium has opposed the European Commission's proposal to provide Ukraine with a EUR 210 billion loan from frozen russian assets. This is reported by Politico.

On the eve of the EU summit, the European Commission tried to enlist the support of member states to use funds from russian reserves stored in the Belgian depository Euroclear to support the Ukrainian economy, which suffered as a result of the war. The ambassadors of the 27 EU member states are expected to continue discussing this initiative, despite some progress in diplomatic efforts to end russia's war against Ukraine.

After several days of negotiations, the European Commission proposed to amend its plan to meet Belgium's demands. In particular, the document provided for legal guarantees that would allow Belgium to receive compensation of up to EUR 210 billion in the event of lawsuits or pressure from russia. It was also noted that Ukraine would not receive funds until the EU states provided financial guarantees covering at least 50% of the possible payments.

In addition, the European Commission proposed that EU countries terminate bilateral investment agreements with russia so that Belgium would not be left alone with possible retaliatory measures from moscow.

However, according to four EU diplomats, these assurances were not enough. During a meeting of ambassadors on Monday evening, the Belgian side again expressed objections, and no agreement was reached before the European Council meeting.

Belgium fears that in the event of legal claims from russia, it will have to compensate for the full amount of frozen assets. An additional factor was the fact that Italy, Malta, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic supported Belgium's position on the need to find alternative mechanisms for financing Ukraine, in particular through the EU's common debt.

According to Politico, France publicly supports the idea of using russian assets, but sources close to President Emmanuel Macron call Paris' position neutral - between confiscating Russian assets and raising Eurobonds.

Germany, on the other hand, insists that there is no real alternative to using the frozen russian funds. Berlin points out that the joint debt mechanism requires unanimous consent, which allows Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to block such a decision.

"Let's not kid ourselves: if we fail, the ability of the European Union to act will be seriously undermined for years," said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

At the same time, critics of this initiative believe that Germany's position is due to its principled opposition to the idea of a common EU debt.

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, in early December, Politico wrote that the Japanese government refused to transfer frozen russian assets to Ukraine.

Not long before that, it became known that France also does not intend to open access to the European Union to russia's frozen assets.

In November, the European Commission offered three options for long-term financing to EU countries. The most favorable for the bloc is the use of frozen russian assets