The EU plans to treat Belgium the same as Hungary if it does not support the proposal to provide a reparations loan for Ukraine.
This is reported by Politico, citing sources.
At the EU summit on December 18, the blocʼs leadersʼ main task will be to convince the countryʼs Prime Minister, Bart de Wever, who is vetoing efforts to provide a loan to Ukraine.
According to the publicationʼs sources, if he continues to block the plan by putting forward additional conditions and demands, he will find himself in an awkward and unusual position — he will be "isolated and ignored" just like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
If Belgium does not support the plan, its diplomats, ministers and leaders will lose their voice at the EU negotiating table, the countryʼs opinion on EU proposals will not be taken into account, and phone calls from there will "not be answered".
Among other options, EU leaders could unite and pass the reparations loan by qualified majority vote, ignoring Belgium’s refusal and simply “pushing it through”. But diplomats say that option is not being seriously considered.
What is known about the reparation loan?
The possibility of providing Ukraine with a €140 billion loan using frozen Russian assets has been discussed since early October. At that time, EU leaders were unable to agree on the loan — Belgium opposed it, and France and Luxembourg were concerned about the legal consequences.
The European Commission officially presented the idea of a reparations loan on December 6, and its details were revealed by Politico. This loan is to consist of €165 billion: €25 billion of frozen Russian state assets held in private bank accounts across the European Union, and €140 billion held in the Belgian financial institution Euroclear. The money is planned to be distributed as follows:
€115 billion will be allocated to finance Ukraineʼs defense industry;
€50 billion will cover Ukraineʼs budget needs;
€45 billion will be used to repay the loan that the G7 provided to Ukraine in 2024.
Belgium is opposed to the loan, worried that Russia would sue it if the plan goes ahead, as the frozen assets are held in Belgiumʼs Euroclear. The Belgian prime minister has asked the other 26 EU countries to guarantee coverage of the legal and financial risks.
Meanwhile, according to Bloomberg, Russia has prepared a response to the Westʼs possible "reparations loan" to Ukraine — it will nationalize foreign assets.
And on December 5, Bloomberg, citing sources among European diplomats, wrote that the United States had lobbied several EU countries not to use Russian assets for reparations loans for Ukraine. American officials convinced EU member states that these assets were needed to secure a peace agreement between Kyiv and Moscow, so they should not be used to continue the war.
On December 8, the G7 countries supported the use of frozen Russian assets for reparations to Ukraine and stated that they were ready to increase pressure on Russia if peace talks failed.
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