---
title: "Belgium stands firm against EU plan to use Russian assets for Ukraine"
type: "post"
post_id: "12081"
slug: "belgium-stands-firm-against-eu-plan-to-use-russian-assets-for-ukraine"
canonical: "https://pennyforyourthoughts2.ca/2025/11/30/belgium-stands-firm-against-eu-plan-to-use-russian-assets-for-ukraine/"
markdown_url: "https://pennyforyourthoughts2.ca/2025/11/30/belgium-stands-firm-against-eu-plan-to-use-russian-assets-for-ukraine.md"
json_url: "https://pennyforyourthoughts2.ca/2025/11/30/belgium-stands-firm-against-eu-plan-to-use-russian-assets-for-ukraine.json"
txt_url: "https://pennyforyourthoughts2.ca/2025/11/30/belgium-stands-firm-against-eu-plan-to-use-russian-assets-for-ukraine.txt"
published: "2025-11-30T14:02:01+00:00"
modified: "2025-11-30T17:28:49+00:00"
author: "penny2"
categories:
  - "Uncategorized"
tags:
  - "EU"
  - "Russia"
  - "Ukraine"
site_name: "PFYT2"
publisher: ""
language: "en-US"
generator: "easyPress Markdown"
generator_version: "1.0.6"
---
[**Belgium doesn’t want to go along with this plan!**](https://www.trtworld.com/article/3a50cd0be747)

> **Belgium’s Prime Minister Bart De Wever has called an EU plan to use frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine “fundamentally wrong”, throwing further doubt on a push to agree on the move next month.**
> 
> In a letter to European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen seen by AFP on Friday**, De Wever pushed back strongly on the initiative and urged against venturing “into uncharted legal and financial waters”.**
> 
> **The EU executive and multiple member states are pressing for the bloc to tap immobilised Russian central bank assets to provide Kiev with a $162 billion loan** to plug looming budget black holes.
> 
> **`Belgium is the key voice on the issue as it hosts international deposit organisation Euroclear, where the vast bulk of the assets are held.`**
> 
> **De Wever has repeatedly said the plan could leave his country facing crippling legal and financial reprisals from Moscow, and called for cast-iron guarantees from other EU countries that they will share the risk.**
> 
> **He said he would only agree to the scheme at a crunch EU leaders’ summit on December 18 if binding guarantees “are delivered and signed by member states at the time of decision”.**
> 
> **De Wever’s letter comes as von der Leyen has promised to come up with legal texts soon, laying out the exact proposed structure of the scheme.**
> 
> **EU officials have asserted that the risks for Belgium of a successful legal challenge are small, an argument rebutted by the straight-talking De Wever.**
> 
> **“Let me use the analogy of a plane crash: aircraft are the safest way of transportation and the chances of a crash are low, but in the event of a crash, the consequences are disastrous,” he said.**
> 
> **German Chancellor Friedrich Merz** said he was in contact with De Wever and was pressing for an agreement.
> 
> ***“I understand his concerns; he has good arguments, but we also have good arguments about reaching our common goal,”*** he said.
> 
> “***We are looking for a joint solution with the Belgian state and also with Euroclear so that we can decide on this within the EU with the widest consensus possible.”***

> **Clamour to harness the Russian assets has grown in the EU after a US plan to stop the war in Ukraine that emerged last week suggested the assets should be unfrozen.**

> Proponents argue that if the bloc does not act now to use the money, then it risks losing control of it under a potential US-backed peace deal.

> **The proposed EU “reparations loan” envisages that Ukraine would only pay back the funds once Russia had coughed up for the damages inflicted by its war on Kiev.**
> 
> In the face of Belgian opposition to the plan, **von der Leyen has laid out other options to keep financing Kiev, including EU countries taking out joint borrowing.**
> 
> But **the commission has warned that those options would prove more costly for member states at a time when many are struggling with stretched national budgets.**

**Have mentioned the desire to steal Russia’s assets a number of times already**

> [Stealing Russia’s Frozen Assets](https://pennyforyourthoughts2.ca/2025/11/27/stealing-russias-frozen-assets/)