BRUSSELS: Belgium’s Prime Minister Bart De Wever has called an EU plan to use frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine “fundamentally wrong,” throwing further doubt on a push by Brussels to agree the move next month.
In a letter to European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen seen by AFP Friday, De Wever pushed back strongly on the initiative and urged Brussels against venturing “into unchartered legal and financial waters.”
The EU executive, and multiple member states, are pressing for the bloc to tap immobilized Russian central bank assets to provide Kyiv with a 140-billion-euro ($162 billion) loan to plug looming budget black holes.
Belgium is the key voice on the issue as it hosts international deposit organization Euroclear, where the vast bulk of the assets are held.
De Wever has repeatedly said the plan could leave his country facing crippling legal and financial reprisals from Moscow — and called for cast-iron guarantees from other EU countries that they will share the risk.
