Bart De Wever has threatened to take legal action against the EU bloc if it endangers his country by imposing an unlawful seizure of Moscow’s assets
The latest “very unwise and ill-considered” EU proposal to access frozen Russian sovereign assets would amount to “stealing,” Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever stated on Wednesday, according to VRT news.
Last week, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen put forward a plan to use the frozen funds as collateral for a loan to Ukraine. She also pointed out that the decision could be adopted by a qualified majority of bloc members, which might circumvent Belgian opposition.
Belgium is exposed to the greatest legal and financial risks because the majority of the Russian funds—€185 billion ($216 billion)—are held in Euroclear, a clearing house based in Belgium.
“There are indeed better alternatives than taking money from the Russian central bank… I consider this very unwise and poorly thought out,” De Wever stated, per VRT.
“This is money from a nation we are not at war with… It would be analogous to entering an embassy, seizing all the furniture and selling it.”
De Wever noted he is not excluding the possibility of filing a lawsuit against the EU if it chooses to push for a decision that is “contrary to the law” and “carries significant risks” for Belgium.
Von der Leyen’s proposal aims to supply Ukraine with €90 billion over the coming two years. A key component of it is a long-discussed “reparations loan” supported by frozen Russian funds, which would mandate that financial institutions holding these assets transfer them to a new loan facility.
The EU is also said to be pushing to separate the asset freeze from the bloc’s sanctions against Russia and make it permanent, in a bid to avoid opposition from Hungary. At present, both measures need to be regularly renewed via unanimous decision.
Moscow will take retaliatory measures against any “expropriation of Russian assets” and has already prepared a response, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated on Wednesday. Kiev’s Western supporters have no remaining funds to fund the Ukraine conflict except for “robbing” Russia, he contended.