Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever (Photo: ERA / Olivier Matthys)

The European Commission has proposed a new legal solution to persuade Belgium to support a loan to Ukraine secured by 140 billion euros worth of Russian assets frozen in Brussels. Five unnamed diplomats and officials of the European Union told Politico.

According to the newspaper, Brussels fears that if EU sanctions against Russia are lifted due to the veto of a single country, such as Hungary or Slovakia, the state will have to compensate Moscow for these billions at its own expense.

Disable ads
Disable ads

To remove the risks for Belgium, the European Commission wants to eliminate the possibility of single

Read also
The ECB refused to guarantee a €140 billion reparations loan. Does Ukraine have other options?

toron blocking of sanctions by individual countries. The plan is to apply Article 122 of the EU Treaty, which allows for qualified majority decisions in a "spirit of solidarity" between member states in situations of significant economic impact. This will effectively deprive Budapest of its veto power, Politico writes.

Diplomats note that this approach will help ensure the security of the financial mechanism for Ukraine and unblock the decision to use the proceeds of Russian assets. In addition, the EU may reduce the frequency of sanctions extensions from every six months to three years.

According to Politico, the final legal proposal is due on Wednesday.

  • on September 10, the European Commission put forward an idea "reparations loan" of EUR 140 billion, based on the cash balances of Russian frozen assets.
  • Thanks to the "reparations loan", Ukraine could receive 45 billion euros annually over the next three years – from 2026 to 2028.
  • Belgium blocked a decision to approve a reparations loan for Ukraine.
  • december 2 it became knownthe European governments have accused Belgium of excessive demands in the form of carte blanche if Russia sues over €140 billion of frozen Russian assets stored in Brussels.