European leaders on Friday, October 16, resumed discussions on using frozen Russian sovereign assets to support Ukraine, despite Belgium's continued opposition to the scheme, which it successfully blocked last year. Rapporteur reports, as cited by UNN.
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"The frozen assets are there: they should be used to support Ukraine. It's that simple," Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs said ahead of the second day of the EU summit in Brussels on Friday, where Ukraine's financial needs were to be discussed with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen also noted that these assets, the vast majority of which are located in Belgium, are the "most obvious place to turn to" in order to support Ukraine, which, according to the publication's estimates, will face a $78 billion funding shortfall next year.
These assets "serve a dual purpose: they will finance Europe's defense, but they will also mean that Russia, which is currently causing so much destruction both in Ukraine and in Europe, will itself pay for everything it is doing," Frederiksen said.
The EU's chief diplomat, Kaja Kallas, also proposed using Russian assets to cover Ukraine's impending budget shortfall. "I am sure that [the leaders] will raise this [issue] today," she said. "Ukraine needs this money right now."
The comments came several weeks after Sweden, Spain, Poland and the Netherlands wrote to the European Commission, urging it to revive last year's heated debate on using these assets to support Ukraine.
Belgium rejected Germany's initiative last year to provide a "reparations loan" backed by the assets, citing legal and financial risks for Euroclear, the Brussels-based securities depository that holds €190 billion in Kremlin funds intended for use in the loan.
Ultimately, EU leaders decided to issue €90 billion in joint debt to finance Ukraine, as well as to freeze the Russian assets indefinitely.
The remarks also came several hours after Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever told reporters that his country's position remained unchanged.
"At the end of a conflict, there is always a peace agreement, and part of that peace agreement is the use of immobilized assets," De Wever said at a press conference that began after midnight on Friday.
"Are there people on this planet who might dream of doing this differently this time and using these assets earlier for certain purposes? The answer to that question is: yes, there are. Are they in this building? They are. Are there [some] outside this building? Yes, there are. Do I want to talk about it? No, I don't," he said.
Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin also hinted that he did not want to resume discussions on the frozen assets on Friday.
"We strongly supported the issue of seizing [these] assets and the possibility of using them, but ultimately it produced no results," said Martin, whose country currently holds the presidency of the Council of the EU.
"I recognize the amount of energy and effort that went into this last time. I would be more supportive of doing something effective, efficient and as quickly as possible on this issue," Martin said.