EU Pressures Belgium to Back Use of Frozen Russian Assets for Ukraine Loan – FT

The European Union is ramping up pressure on Belgium to support a plan allowing frozen Russian sovereign assets to be used as collateral for a €140 billion “reparations loan” to help fund Ukraine’s defense.

The Gaze reports this, referring to The Financial Times.

Roughly €190 billion in Russian central bank reserves have been held at Euroclear, the Brussels-based securities depository, since they were frozen in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

For months, the initiative to repurpose these funds had been stalled amid legal and financial concerns voiced by the United States, Germany and Belgium. But recent diplomatic momentum, including a push from Washington, has brought the plan back to the center of talks within the G7 and the EU.

According to documents seen by FT, the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has urged allies to “confiscate or otherwise use” the underlying Russian assets to finance Ukraine’s war effort. 

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has also publicly argued that €140 billion of these funds should serve as a loan mechanism for Ukraine’s military needs.

The European Commission has since outlined a structure for the loan, insisting it would not amount to asset confiscation and would comply with international law.

However, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever has resisted endorsing the plan, asking his 26 EU counterparts to share both the financial and legal risks, and to guarantee the entire sum so that Belgium would not bear the burden alone.

That stance has frustrated other EU capitals, particularly since Euroclear’s profits are taxed in Belgium, generating significant revenue for Brussels. 

“Belgium has long claimed Euroclear is a Belgian company, but now wants to treat it as a European one when risks are involved,” one senior EU diplomat told FT.

Several European officials said patience with Belgium is running thin, emphasizing that the situation in Ukraine demands unity. 

They pointed to Poland’s role as the logistics hub for weapons deliveries and Denmark’s decision to send F-16 fighter jets to Kyiv without asking others to share the risks “There are no easy decisions left. Everyone must do what they can,” one EU diplomat said.

In a bid to ease concerns, the European Commission added a clause stating that if Russia eventually pays war reparations, the loan would be covered by national contingent liabilities, limiting exposure for Belgium. “We believe the risks for Belgium are fairly limited,” an EU official told FT.

Despite those assurances, the Belgian government maintains that the current plan is “unsatisfactory” and that the proposed safeguards do not adequately resolve its risk-coverage concerns.

EU leaders hope to finalize the €140 billion credit facility by December, with the first disbursements expected in the second quarter of 2026, the FT said.

As The Gaze previously reported, on October 1, Ukraine received another tranche of €4 billion from the European Union as part of the G7 Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration for Ukraine (ERA) initiative, which provides for financing from frozen Russian assets.