Belgium’s Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot said on Wednesday that European Union plans to use Russian assets to fund a loan to Ukraine do not meet his country’s concerns, as the bloc’s executive prepared to set out the legal details.
Prévot told journalists at a NATO meeting:
Our concerns are being downplayed. The texts the European Commission will table today do not address our concerns in a satisfactory manner. … We demand that the risks Belgium is facing as a result of this scheme are fully covered.
The EU has proposed using frozen Russian central bank assets—the vast majority of which are held in Belgium—to fund a new €140 billion loan for Kyiv.
EU officials insist the initiative is essential to keep Ukraine afloat as it battles Russia’s invasion, and want the bloc’s leaders to endorse it at a summit this month. Belgium, however, fears the plan could expose it to potentially crippling legal and financial retaliation from Moscow.
