{"id":1166449,"date":"2026-08-24T10:57:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T10:57:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1166449\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T10:57:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T10:57:33","slug":"seize-russias-frozen-e210bn-for-ukraine-now-while-eu-unity-lasts-euobserver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1166449\/","title":{"rendered":"Seize Russia\u2019s frozen \u20ac210bn for Ukraine now \u2013 while EU unity lasts \u2013 EUobserver"},"content":{"rendered":"

European leaders need no encouragement to enjoy the summer sun. They should make the most of favourable political weather too. <\/p>\n

Since Viktor Orb\u00e1n\u2019s departure from power in Budapest, and before the next French president takes office next May, a rare period of consensus about support for Ukraine reigns in Europe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The first agenda item when the suntanned bigwigs return in September should be seizing Russia\u2019s central bank assets: around \u20ac210bn, frozen since 2022, mostly held by the Belgian company Euroclear. <\/p>\n

A European Union plan to seize this money and use it for Ukraine was derailed by\u00a0Russian death-threats against Belgian decision-makers<\/a>\u00a0and other more conventional (legal) forms of intimidation. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Belgium\u2019s prime minister Bart De Wever\u00a0said last yea<\/a>r<\/a> he would gladly get rid of the money to anyone prepared to indemnify Belgium; in a nod to the risks involved, he said he would add some bodyguards and an armoured car free of charge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The answer is for the EU itself to take custody of the frozen accounts. <\/p>\n

Russia can credibly intimidate individual Belgians. It is less likely to make EU commissioners and senior officials fear for their lives. <\/p>\n

The EU would provide an indemnity to cover any residual risk faced by Belgium and by Euroclear, which holds \u20ac185bn.\u00a0<\/p>\n

All other Russian frozen sovereign accounts in the EU (which make up the \u20ac210bn total) would also be transferred to EU custody under the same scheme.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Once in EU hands, the money need not be confiscated immediately (though I would support that approach). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"European leaders need no encouragement to enjoy the summer sun. They should make the most of favourable political…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1166450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7654],"tags":[217083,2000,299,218484,290938,218481,226411,290936,226409,218479,218482,290937,226410,218480,218483,657],"class_list":["post-1166449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ukraine","tag-typedefinedterm","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-identifier24","tag-identifier4081","tag-identifier4308","tag-identifier4401","tag-namecolumn","tag-nameeu-and-the-world","tag-namerussia","tag-nameukraine","tag-termcodecolumn","tag-termcodeeu-and-the-world","tag-termcoderussia","tag-termcodeukraine","tag-ukraine"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117150132855679220","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1166449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1166449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1166449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1166450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1166449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1166449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1166449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}