EU can prove Trump wrong about Europe by agreeing on a plan for Russian assets - Estonian PM
Kyiv • UNN
The US President called the bloc's members 'weak', but joint action on funding for Ukraine would send a 'very strong signal', according to Kaja Kallas.
European leaders can refute US President Donald Trump's claims of their weakness by cementing a deal to unlock hundreds of billions of frozen Russian assets for Ukraine, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas told Politico on Tuesday, UNN reports.
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Last week, the US president called Europe "a group of decaying countries" and criticized its leaders days after his administration released a sweeping national security strategy that rebuked the continent. "I think they're weak," Trump told Politico. "They don't know what to do."
Now, those same leaders "absolutely" have a chance to correct Trump, Kallas said in an interview, heading into a crucial EU summit on Thursday that will determine the fate of the bloc's plan to provide a €210 billion loan, backed by frozen Russian assets, to finance Ukraine.
"Europe can act together, we have the funds to support Ukraine for many years, and these funds are taken from Russian assets – this is a very strong message," Kallas said ahead of a meeting of leaders of eight EU "frontline" countries in Helsinki on Tuesday.
"We are not against America, we are with America," he said, but reaching a deal this week would prove that "we are a strong partner, [which is] better than having a weak partner."
According to the publication, "these comments underscore the extremely high stakes at this week's meeting of the bloc's 27 leaders."
Kallas's call, it is noted, also increases pressure on Belgium, a key country that opposes the agreement. The country, where EU institutions are located, also hosts Euroclear, a financial institution that holds most of Russia's reserves in the bloc, and has repeatedly sought changes to the agreement due to concerns about liability if Moscow returns these assets.
During a Monday evening meeting of EU envoys, Belgium again rejected the latest proposals from the European Commission, arguing that they did not provide sufficient guarantees.
EU leaders have repeatedly urged the country to back down, arguing that fallback options, such as issuing joint debt, would be even harder to achieve, given that it would require unanimity from the bloc's 27 members. This means that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a long-time skeptic of supporting Ukraine, could block the initiative.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned on Monday that the EU would "suffer serious damage for years" if the bloc failed to reach a deal. At a summit of EU member states in Helsinki on Tuesday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that Belgium must demonstrate "unity with us." Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda also asked for "political goodwill from Belgium."
Kallas adopted a more constructive tone.
"There are reasonable questions and reasonable details that Belgium is raising," he said. "We will discuss them calmly and rationally."
"But after that, it all comes down to [this]," he added. "Is Europe ready for the moment when we need to… and does it send a signal that we can also be tough on security issues?"
At the same time, the Estonian Prime Minister warned that if Russia is not held accountable after a peace agreement is concluded, it will only further encourage Moscow's revanchism across Europe.
"If Russia is not [held accountable] for what it has done, for example, does not pay for the damage caused," he said, "it will send a signal that using force to change borders is acceptable."