Von der Leyen announces two solutions to fund Ukraine for 2026-2027

The European Commission has unveiled two decisions aimed at meeting Ukraine's financial needs for 2026-2027.

According to European Commission President Ursula von der Leye, the European Commission is considering funding Ukraine over the next two years through external borrowing guaranteed by the EU budget or through "reparations loans" from frozen Russian assets.

"Today we are tabling two solutions for member states to agree on. The first solution is EU borrowing. That is basically raising capital at the capital markets and using the EU budget as a guarantee for that, and hand this capital as a loan to Ukraine," von der Leyen said, noting that the decision must be adopted unanimously.

"And the second solution that we are proposing today in the legal text is a so-called reparations loan. Here, we would use the cash balances from demobilised Russian assets in the European Union," she said.

Von der Leyen emphasised that the EU now proposes to include all financial institutions that hold such funds and not just Belgium's Euroclear, European Pravda reports.

According to the European Commission chief, these institutions would transfer the funds to the reparations loan instrument.

"So, in other words, we're taking the cash balances, we're providing them to Ukraine as a loan, and Ukraine has to pay back this loan if and when Russia is paying reparations. This solution can be established by qualified majority voting," she added.

European Pravda has reported that even before the new proposal was made public, Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot said it was absolutely unacceptable to Belgium.

Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever outlined Belgium's comments and demands regarding Russian assets in a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the end of November.

Other EU countries are opposed to granting Belgium unlimited guarantees to release the loan for Ukraine.