“Almost like the Titanic”: Belgian Prime Minister on discussion about Russian assets

The Belgian Prime Minister, Bart de Wever, described the decision and negotiations regarding the confiscation of frozen Russian assets to finance a loan to Ukraine as a situation similar to the sinking of the Titanic.

At the European Council summit, the bloc’s leaders, failing to reach a consensus on the confiscation of Russian sovereign funds to secure credit for Kyiv, accepted an alternative plan to resort to a new joint debt issuance to raise 90 billion euros (almost 105.5 billion dollars) in two years, but without the participation of Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

De Wever stressed that this decision made everyone “victorious”: Ukraine, Europe, and financial stability.

In this line, he proudly showed that Belgium contributed to the solution with “a constructive and firm attitude” and described the final decision as “very complex, technical, risky and dangerous: it was almost like the Titanic.” Likewise, he welcomed the fact that “the voice of small and medium-sized states also counts”, as well as “respect for legitimate national concerns”.

‘Battle’ for Russian assets

In this context, he highlighted the continued credibility of the Belgian financial institution Euroclear, where most of the Russian funds within Europe are deposited. According to sources, the main difficulty in making the decision on the use of the blocked assets was to provide Belgium with sufficient guarantees to face possible financial and legal risks from a possible retaliation by Moscow.

Previously, it was reported that the head of the Belgian government himself was under pressure from deputies of all parties in his country, who insisted that he prevent the EU from using Russian funds, so he could not go against the general consensus.

While the idea of resorting to Russian assets was discarded for now, EU leaders stated that these, which amount to 210 billion euros (246 billion dollars) in the bloc, will remain frozen until Moscow pays war reparations to Ukraine, and this, in turn, could then use that money to repay the loan. Russia, for its part, has warned on several occasions that the blocking of its funds violates international law and has called the EU initiative “theft”.