“It’s a bit sour for me that we are finger-pointed, now, as the unwilling country,” De Wever told reporters. He described the idea of Belgian taxpayers ending up on the hook as “completely insane.”
Donald Trump’s ambiguous attitude to how to deal with Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, despite this week sanctioning Russia’s two biggest oil companies, has put the onus on Europe to bolster its support. While Europe’s governments and the European Central Bank long considered unthinkable using Russian assets to arm and rebuild Ukraine over fears it would break international law, it emerged as a real prospect in the past few months as the war has dragged on.
The EU on Thursday was hoping to give the European Commission a firm mandate to make a legal proposal outlining the loan as early as next week. De Wever ensured that didn’t happen.
‘Sufficiently balanced’
A full day of frantic negotiations saw talks break up without agreement at one point ― only for leaders to return later in the evening after their advisers worked on compromise language. De Wever allowed the final summit statement to say that he wouldn’t stand in the way of the Commission further exploring the assets confiscation idea. That was hardly the stuff Kyiv dreamed of.
It is “a sufficiently balanced text to allow interpretations that respond to all needs and sensibilities so everyone will then give a certain interpretation that’s good for themselves,” said an EU diplomat briefed on the discussions, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were in private.
Few were able to conceal the fact that the outcome raises renewed questions about the EU’s fragile support for Ukraine with the conflict nearing its four-year anniversary.
The assets plan “hasn’t been buried,” French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters. “We were able to discuss technical details.” No other funding options were on the table for Ukraine aid, he said. ECB President Christine Lagarde, told leaders that the risks associated to the loan are “manageable.”