EU Leaders Fail to Agree on Mega Loan to Ukraine Using Russian Assets

European leaders at a meeting in Copenhagen failed to agree on a plan to grant Ukraine a “mega-loan” from frozen Russian assets due to differences between EU member states.

The Gaze reports on it, referring to Economic Pravda, citing the Financial Times.

At the summit in Copenhagen, EU leaders failed to reach agreement on a plan to grant Ukraine a loan of €140 billion from frozen Russian assets.

The idea was that the loan would be repaid after the end of the war and Russia's payment of reparations to Ukraine, after which the funds would be returned to Euroclear. If Moscow refused to pay, it would lose its rights to these assets.

However, the initiative met with resistance from some member states. Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever spoke out against the initiative at a closed meeting of EU leaders. The Belgian representative explained this position by citing the risks of legal consequences and possible lawsuits from Russia.

France and Luxembourg also expressed concerns about the legal basis for such a scheme.

Other leaders, while supporting the general principle, called on the European Commission to conduct a more in-depth analysis of the legal and financial aspects.

According to sources, the European Commission is unlikely to have time to prepare a full legal proposal before the next EU meeting in Brussels due to the significant amount of technical work involved. Ursula von der Leyen stressed that the final decision must take into account the risks for all member states.

EU representatives acknowledge that the use of frozen Russian assets may be the only option, but a unanimous agreement of all 27 countries is required to make a decision.

As The Gaze informed earlier, Kaja Kallas highlighted that providing Ukraine with a “reparations loan” using frozen Russian assets is legally viable but politically sensitive.