Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever has thrown down the gauntlet on the plan to use Russia’s immobilised assets to issue a €140 billion loan to Ukraine: if his demands are not satisfied, he will block it.
Belgium has a particular stake in the ground-breaking project because the bulk of the Russian assets are held at Euroclear, a central securities depository based in Brussels. Under the plan, which is still in early stages, the cash balances at Euroclear will be transferred to the European Commission, which will then issue the loan to Ukraine. The country will only be asked to pay back if Russia agrees to pay reparations.
Upon arrival, De Wever listed three key demands as conditions for his blessing:
- The «full mutualisation» of risks, including legal claims filed by Russia.
- Guarantees to ensure that, if the assets are unfrozen and the money has to be paid back, «every member state will have to chip in».
- An obligation for all European countries that hold Russia’s sovereign assets to participate.
«Even during the Second World War, immobilised assets were never touched,» De Wever told reporters.
«If we move, we must move all together, that’s European solidarity,» he went on. «If these three demands, which are quite reasonable, I think, are met, then we can go forward. If not, I will do everything in my power at the European level and also at the national level, politically and legally, to stop this decision.»
De Wever complained about the lack of what he called «legal analysis» and «legal basis» to support the Commission’s project and warned that the Kremlin, and possibly its allies, would seize assets of European companies as retaliation.
«The member states must understand that if they take Putin’s money, he will take our money back,» he said.
De Wever’s remarks raise a high bar for the discussions on Thursday. The summit’s conclusions have an open paragraph tasking the Commission with moving forward with the plan so that it can present a fully fledged text by the end of the year.
«I will be surprised if we solve it today, but miracles do happen,» De Wever said.
Photo: Associated Press
