Belgium’s Prime Minister Bart De Wever has called an EU plan to use frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine “fundamentally wrong”, throwing further doubt on a push to agree on the move next month.
In a letter to European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen seen by AFP on Friday, De Wever pushed back strongly on the initiative and urged against venturing “into uncharted legal and financial waters”.
The EU executive and multiple member states are pressing for the bloc to tap immobilised Russian central bank assets to provide Kiev with a $162 billion loan to plug looming budget black holes.
Belgium is the key voice on the issue as it hosts international deposit organisation Euroclear, where the vast bulk of the assets are held.
De Wever has repeatedly said the plan could leave his country facing crippling legal and financial reprisals from Moscow, and called for cast-iron guarantees from other EU countries that they will share the risk.
He said he would only agree to the scheme at a crunch EU leaders’ summit on December 18 if binding guarantees “are delivered and signed by member states at the time of decision”.
De Wever’s letter comes as von der Leyen has promised to come up with legal texts soon, laying out the exact proposed structure of the scheme.
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EU officials have asserted that the risks for Belgium of a successful legal challenge are small, an argument rebutted by the straight-talking De Wever.
“Let me use the analogy of a plane crash: aircraft are the safest way of transportation and the chances of a crash are low, but in the event of a crash, the consequences are disastrous,” he said.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he was in contact with De Wever and was pressing for an agreement.