{"id":3511,"date":"2026-02-26T05:16:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T05:16:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/3511\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T05:16:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T05:16:32","slug":"eu-countries-reject-blank-check-guarantee-to-belgium-over-russian-assets-loan-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/3511\/","title":{"rendered":"EU countries reject \u2018blank check\u2019 guarantee to Belgium over Russian assets loan \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;We are advancing our work to meet Ukraine\u2019s financial needs,&#8221; Commission President Ursula von der Leyen <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/vonderleyen\/status\/1995513379998306593?s=46&amp;t=grU1lTHfUTZ5TfuQDIxVdQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">posted<\/a> on X on Monday. &#8220;We have made good progress, and we plan to table our legal proposals this week.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The so-called reparations loan is hugely contentious with Belgium&#8217;s government, as it would use the cash value of frozen Russian state assets on Belgian soil to finance Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>Amid fears of Russian retaliation, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever insists that EU governments give Belgium cover with financial guarantees that exceed the \u20ac140 billion and that can be paid out within days. He also wants the lifespan of these guarantees to outlast the EU&#8217;s sanctions against Russia.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"661\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2247626577-1024x661.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7585344\"  \/>Amid fears of Russian retaliation, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever insists that EU governments give Belgium cover with financial guarantees that exceed the \u20ac140 billion and that can be paid out within days. | Emile Windal\/BELGA MAG\/Belga\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>While European governments are open to guaranteeing a pre-agreed figure, they are reluctant to sign up to what they describe as a \u201cblank check.\u201d Four EU diplomats told POLITICO that they cannot accept De Wever\u2019s request because it would put their country\u2019s financial viability at the whim of a court ruling \u2014\u00a0potentially exposing them to billions of euros of repayments years after the war in Ukraine ends.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf [the guarantees] are infinite and without limits, then what are we getting ourselves into?\u201d said an EU diplomat who, like others quoted in this story, was granted anonymity to speak freely. The question of how comprehensive the national guarantees should be is shaping up to be among the hardest in the negotiations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor many member states, it\u2019s politically difficult to give this blank check,\u201d said a second EU diplomat. They cautioned, however, that it is unlikely that those safety nets will ever be used because the EU\u2019s scheme is legally safe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#8220;We are advancing our work to meet Ukraine\u2019s financial needs,&#8221; Commission President Ursula von der Leyen posted on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[76,7,489,1395,2914,1597,347,2915,491,390,714,941,88,396,943],"class_list":["post-3511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-bart-de-wever","tag-belgium","tag-budget","tag-courts","tag-debt","tag-defense","tag-foreign-policy","tag-kremlin","tag-negotiations","tag-russia","tag-safety","tag-sanctions","tag-ukraine","tag-war","tag-war-in-ukraine"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}