European officials cannot reach a compromise on the “repatriation loan”: Belgium demands additional guarantees
Фото: REUTERS
European officials, trying to convince the Belgian government to agree to finance Ukraine with frozen Russian assets, negotiated late into the night, but Brussels demanded additional guarantees.
This was reported by Politico.
The meeting of diplomats was supposed to take place on December 14, but it was postponed by one day so that Belgium could review the text prepared by the European Commission as a compromise.
The publication has reviewed the latest version of the document. As noted, it contains three guarantees for Belgium.
In particular, Brussels will be able to use funding in the amount of the entire package if it encounters opposition from Russia.
Belgium will also be able to rely on the security system, regardless of the total amount of financial guarantees.
The document emphasizes that funds will not be transferred to Ukraine until guarantees are provided.
In addition, all European countries undertake to terminate any bilateral investment agreements with the Russian Federation.
As diplomats noted, Belgium does not want to “take disproportionate risks,” these guarantees are allegedly not enough, so the government is demanding additional ones from the EU.
According to officials, the process of finding a compromise is still not complete.
“All the work has been aimed at reaching an agreement on reparations; there is no clear alternative. And we will achieve that. It is only a matter of time,” he said.
As a reminder, in a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever named three conditions for converting frozen Russian assets into a loan for Ukraine.
Earlier, Belgium criticized the European Commission’s new proposal to transfer frozen Russian assets to Ukraine, stating that the document is “categorically unacceptable.”
As is known, the European Union is considering the possibility of isolating the Belgian government for blocking the initiative to finance Ukraine with frozen Russian assets.
By the way,the European Union is preparing an alternative financing scenario for Ukraine in case the leaders fail to agree on using frozen Russian assets to create a reparations loan.
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