Why Belgium is blocking the transfer of frozen Russian assets to Ukraine

On 18 December, a meeting of the European Council, the EU leaders’ summit, will begin. European Council President António Costa has said that the heads of EU member states will not leave the room until they agree on sources of funding for Ukraine for the next two years.

But if he truly intends to keep European leaders inside "until victory," their enforced "isolation" may last a while.

The Europeans have encountered stubborn resistance from the Belgian government and have so far failed to find arguments either to overcome it or to reach a compromise.

Read more to understand why Belgium keeps rejecting the European Commission’s proposals and what to expect in the end in the article by Tetiana Vysotska, European Pravda’s Brussels correspondent: The EU is looking for money for Kyiv: why Belgium is "blocking" funding for Ukraine using Russian assets.

According to estimates by the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Ukraine’s budget will require €135.7 billion in external assistance in 2026–2027, of which €83.4 billion are military needs.

The European Union has committed to covering Ukraine’s financial needs in 2026–27.

This decision was made on 23 October at a meeting of the European Council. But when adopting it, the EU’s largest states assumed that frozen Russian assets held in the EU would be used for these needs.

They even wanted to include this point in the conclusions of the October Council, but were unable to due to Belgium’s opposition.

The European Commission’s key strategy, which it did not hide, was to use so-called reparations loans.

De facto, the European Commission proposed tapping into around €180 billion in frozen Russian assets held in the Belgian depository Euroclear: transferring €140 billion to Ukraine and using another roughly €40 billion to repay the ERA loan provided to Ukraine by G7 countries under guarantees of future extraordinary profits generated by the frozen Russian assets (plus another roughly €10 billion currently reinvested but expected to become available within a year).

The European Commission notes that a "reparations loan" would be repaid by Ukraine only when it receives war reparations from Russia.

"Member states would have to provide legally binding, [if court decisions in favour of Russia were ever issued] unconditional and irrevocable guarantees to borrow, based on their size, and pay it back. If a member state decided to opt out and refuse to contribute, the rest would have to increase their share. The Commission also notes that this option would carry interest payments during an "extremely busy period" to raise fresh cash in markets. Kyiv would be asked to repay the loan only after Moscow agrees to compensate for the damages," the options paper of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen reads.

But the Commission’s plan does not specify how exactly these guarantees should be provided.

Another problem: if sanctions against Russia are not renewed, Moscow could request the return of its assets. The Commission is trying to "freeze" Russian assets separately from the sanctions packages to eliminate this risk.

In early December, the Commission even reduced the planned support for Ukraine, from €140 billion to €90 billion in 2026-27. But on the same day, even before von der Leyen officially presented the revised proposal, Belgium’s Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot declared that the proposal was absolutely unacceptable.

Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever believes the Commission’s scheme resembles "illegal confiscation," despite von der Leyen’s arguments.

The existing problem is further complicated by the position of the United States.

US President Donald Trump sees Russian assets as part of his proposed peace arrangements with Moscow and suggests using them to finance post-war reconstruction under US leadership.

Moreover, according to some reports, the US is directly urging certain EU member states not to support von der Leyen’s proposal on Russian assets.

Among the alternatives is voluntary, non-repayable support funded by member states on a bilateral basis.