EU leaders fail to agree on €140 billion loan to Ukraine from frozen russian assets

This was reported by the Financial Times, citing sources.

The European Commission has proposed granting Ukraine a loan in the monetary equivalent of frozen russian assets held by Euroclear, a Belgian financial institution. According to the plan, if russia refuses to pay reparations to Ukraine after its war against the country, it will lose its rights to these assets.

During a brief discussion of the proposal yesterday, various EU leaders said they were willing to agree to the general principle, but the commission needed to study the legal and financial implications in more detail, three officials familiar with the meeting told the FT.

This has stalled the process, making it highly unlikely that the European Commission will present a formal legal proposal to EU leaders at their next meeting in Brussels in three weeks' time, given the scale of the technical work that needs to be done.

Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever is now demanding that the EU ‘mutually share’ the risk of placing frozen assets in Belgium's Euroclear and provide more legal protection in case Moscow files a lawsuit against the country. De Wever spoke out against the proposal for a loan to Ukraine at a closed meeting, but did not speak to journalists either before or after.

Source: Babel