The European Commission vowed to continue to try to harness Russian assets to provide a loan to Ukraine on Friday, despite Belgium’s exhortations that the EU seek alternatives to the €185 billion cash scheme.
Paula Pinho, the Commission’s chief spokesperson, said the EU executive will maintain its “intense work” to address Belgium’s concerns relating to the so-called “reparations loan”, which seeks to harness immobilised sovereign Russian assets held by Euroclear, a Brussels-based securities depository.
Her comments came just hours after Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever sent a stinging letter, seen by Euractiv, to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, in which he denounced the loan as “fundamentally wrong” and urged the EU to plug Kyiv’s yawning budget gap by making use of the headroom in the bloc’s long-term budget.
De Wever has refused to back the scheme – initially floated by von der Leyen in early September – unless its legal and financial risks are shared and other EU countries use Russian assets held in their own jurisdictions to support Kyiv.
“What we are trying to do is to really make sure that the concerns that have been expressed, notably by Belgium and the prime minister, are addressed in a satisfactory manner so that everybody is comfortable with the positions that are being put forward by the Commission,” Pinho said.
Pinho added that the Commission still intends to put forward a legal proposal for the loan scheme “in the coming days”, as von der Leyen suggested would happen earlier this week. EU diplomats expect the proposal to be circulated among member states by the start of next week.
In a statement earlier on Friday, Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot reiterated De Wever’s demands and condemned the “obstinacy” of EU officials who seek to “use the assets without knowing how to do it nor understanding the risks that come with it”.
“We continue pleading for… financing from the markets via the EU,” Prévot said. “It is a well-known and well-established option, operationally feasible, with predictable parameters.”
In an interview with Euractiv on Thursday, EU Economy Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said that “technical progress” had been made in talks between EU and Belgian officials in recent weeks, although he admitted there had been scant political movement.
He also noted that the legal proposal would aim to address Belgium’s major concerns. “Belgium and other member states will expect clarity,” he said.