No wonder EU countries are eyeing Russian assets rather than coughing up to meet Ukraine’s multibillion-euro needs.
EU finances are in such bad shape that the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday urged states to rethink their social contract to avoid “explosive” debt levels, as my colleague Thomas Møller-Nielsen reported.
Follow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official.
But as our resident Norseman Jacob Wulff Wold tells me, up in oil-rich Norway, politicians are pressing the government to crack open the €1.8 trillion sovereign wealth fund to support Ukraine and guarantee the EU’s stalled plan.
This would be music to the ears of the EU, whose makeshift €140 billion reparations loan using Russian assets has been stalled by Belgium, which wants financial guarantees from other EU states.
Five political parties – including three of the four supporting Labor Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre – have called for Norway to underwrite the Ukraine loan. The country is sitting pretty on €109 billion made from gas price hikes triggered by Putin’s war in 2022-23. On Tuesday, Oslo announced another $7 billion for Ukraine’s defense in 2026.
So, Norway: savior of Ukraine and a paralyzed EU? Not so fast. Støre has requested a “full review” of Norway’s potential involvement. “We are paying close attention and are continuing our dialogue with EU colleagues,” the finance ministry told Jacob.
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By the way, the push originated not in Oslo or Brussels but in Copenhagen. In February, Danish daily Politiken branded Norway’s Ukraine support as “pathetic.” It published an interview on Oct. 23 with two Norwegian economists urging Oslo to use its wealth and triple-A credit rating to resolve the reparations loan impasse.
Ambassadors meet today to discuss Ukraine’s dire finances – but there are signs of reality biting as the reparations loan is still being worked out in Brussels. German media reported on Tuesday that Friedrich Merz’s government will put €3 billion in aid in 2026, though that’s a drop in the ocean compared with Kyiv’s needs.
EU economy chief Valdis Dombrovskis said “bridging solutions” might be needed early next year to keep Ukraine afloat if the reparations loan remains stalled.
Ukraine, which plans to use the reparations loan to buy home-made weapons, got a warning about defense corruption in the Commission’s latest enlargement report, which flagged “instances of political interference” in the governance of its two procurement agencies.
See the original of this report by Eddy Wax for Euractiv here.