De Wever said there was “incredible pressure” around the issue of using frozen Russian assets for Ukraine.
According to the Belgian Prime Minister, “the theft of another country's frozen assets, its sovereign wealth funds, has never been done before.” He added that “this is the money of the Central Bank of Russia” and “even during the Second World War, German money was not confiscated,” but “was frozen.”
As de Wever emphasized, after the end of the war, the losing state “must itself renounce all assets, or part of them.”
“But who seriously believes that Russia is losing in Ukraine? Russia is not losing. This is a fairy tale, a complete illusion. It is even undesirable for it to lose, so that instability does not reign in a country that owns nuclear weapons,” the Belgian Prime Minister said in an interview.
De Wever said that “Moscow has made it clear” that if its assets are confiscated, Belgium and he personally “will feel the consequences “forever,” which is “quite a long time.”
“Who believes that [нелегитимный российский президент Владимир] Will Putin calmly accept the confiscation of Russian assets?” the Belgian prime minister asked rhetorically.
De Wever noted that Moscow could also confiscate some Western assets, including Belgian assets in the Russian Federation. He admitted that Belarus and China could also confiscate the assets of Western countries.
“I asked my European colleagues if they were ready to share the risks that Belgium bears. Only Germany said that they were ready,” the politician concluded.
Context
On September 10, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a new strategy to support Ukraine using frozen Russian assets. As Reuters columnist Hugo Dixon explained, the proposal for a so-called reparations loan suggests that the country could be provided with financing from frozen Russian assets without outright confiscation.
On October 23, the head of the European Council, Antonio Costa, assured Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky that the leaders of EU member states would confirm their support for Kyiv and would be able to decide on a reparation loan from frozen Russian assets for the period 2026–2027. De Wever immediately named three conditions under which he would agree to support the idea of a “reparation loan.”
On November 7, the European Commission warned EU countries of the risk of annual costs of up to €5.6 billion if they do not agree on the creation of a reparation loan for Ukraine worth €140 billion using frozen Russian assets.
On November 13, Zelensky called on European allies to overcome differences over the use of frozen Russian assets, as new funding is critical for the country's war-ravaged economy to continue its fight against Moscow.
On November 15, Valérie Urbain, director of the Belgian depositary Euroclear, which manages frozen Russian assets, said she “does not rule out” legal action against the European Union if a decision is made to confiscate them.
There is growing dissatisfaction with Belgium's position in the European Union. EU countries accuse the government of insufficient disclosure of information about the use of taxes on these frozen assets. The European Union also suspects that Belgium may appropriate income from Russian assets frozen in Euroclear, Politico wrote.
On December 2, the same media reported that the EU had found an opportunity to use Russian billions for the needs of Ukraine without risk to Belgium.
