{"id":1312595,"date":"2025-10-28T12:49:30","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T10:49:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/conflict-in-the-eu-over-frozen-russian-assets-ukraine-risks-being-left-without-funds\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T12:49:30","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T10:49:30","slug":"conflict-in-the-eu-over-frozen-russian-assets-ukraine-risks-being-left-without-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/conflict-in-the-eu-over-frozen-russian-assets-ukraine-risks-being-left-without-funds\/","title":{"rendered":"Conflict in the EU over frozen Russian assets: Ukraine risks being left without funds"},"content":{"rendered":"

The EU is stepping up diplomatic pressure on governments that are slow to agree on funding for Ukraine. Brussels warns that if Russia is not forced to pay, EU countries may be forced to pick up the costs.<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to<\/a> Politico, the European Commission is considering various financing options for a \u20ac140 billion loan for Kyiv. Plan B, which involves issuing joint Eurobonds, looks even less attractive to member states than using frozen Russian assets.<\/p>\n

“Frugal” countries such as Germany and the Netherlands have traditionally opposed increasing the debt burden on taxpayers. At the same time, France and Italy, with high public debt, are not ready to take on additional financial obligations.<\/p>\n

Brussels hopes that, despite these doubts, Belgium and other states will agree to the original plan with frozen assets, avoiding the less popular scenario with Eurobonds.<\/p>\n

According to Karel Lanno, head of the Brussels-based think tank CEPS, “budget discipline in some countries is so low that joint Eurobonds are unlikely to be approved in the next 10 years. 140 billion euros is a huge amount, and we must use these funds for the benefit of Ukraine.”<\/p>\n

The idea of using frozen Russian funds initially raised legal and moral doubts. However, due to Ukraine’s growing needs and the uncertain position of the US, the EU changed its position. At the last summit, Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever blocked the initiative, which requires a unanimous decision by the 27 EU members. A final decision may not be made before December.<\/p>\n

The European Union is currently acting in two directions: to provide funding for Ukraine by the end of March and to coordinate the positions of member states, taking into account the attempts of Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia to form an anti-Ukrainian bloc.<\/p>\n

“This is diplomacy in action: you propose something unacceptable so that the other party agrees to a less painful option,” explained one European diplomat.<\/p>\n

Despite Belgian resistance, the European Commission is confident that an agreement will be reached by the end of the year. For many countries that still oppose joint debt, a precedent has already been set: during the COVID-19 pandemic, the EU approved joint borrowing of \u20ac800 billion for economic recovery.<\/p>\n

An alternative option is also being discussed – an additional 25 billion euros of Russian assets in other EU countries, but their search may take much longer than Ukraine can wait.<\/p>\n

Most of the frozen assets are held in the Belgian depository Euroclear, making Belgium the main bearer of legal risks. Even despite the European Commission’s assurances that the risks will be shared among all EU members, Brussels emphasizes that the return of 140 billion euros to Russia is possible only if the war ends and reparations are paid, which is unlikely.<\/p>\n

Belgian officials fear potential lawsuits from Moscow over existing bilateral investment treaties that have been in place since 1989.<\/p>\n

Recall that the European Union may find itself faced with the need to raise tens of billions of euros in joint debt if Belgium does not agree to unblock the mechanism of the so-called “reparation loan” for Ukraine.<\/a><\/p>\n

As reported, Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever expressed support for the idea of creating a reparations loan for Ukraine, but warned that this is only possible if three key legal requirements are met.<\/a><\/p>\n

By the way, Hungary seeks to join forces with the Czech Republic and Slovakia to form an alliance within the European Union, which will have a skeptical position regarding support for Ukraine.<\/a><\/p>\n

Also follow \u201cPryamim\u201d<\/strong> on Facebook<\/a> , Twitter<\/a> , Telegram<\/a> , and Instagram.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The EU is stepping up diplomatic pressure on governments that are slow to agree on funding for Ukraine. Brussels warns that if Russia is not forced to pay, EU countries may be forced to pick up the costs. According to Politico, the European Commission is considering various financing options for a \u20ac140 billion loan for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":808439,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76870,76871,76872,76885],"class_list":["post-1312595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","category-news-2","category-news-feed","category-policy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1312595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1312595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1312595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}