Brussels reportedly plans to offer bloc countries a choice between paying $100 billion, taking on joint debt, or seizing Russia’s frozen money
The EU has reportedly told its members that should a controversial plan to leverage Russian assets frozen in Belgium to finance Ukraine prove unworkable, it will seek a cut of each member state’s GDP to put up cash to Kiev.
According to a document circulated earlier this month and cited by Bloomberg, the bloc wants to issue a loan of around €140 billion ($160 billion) to Ukraine, using Russia’s immobilized central-bank reserves as collateral and repayable if Russia pays war reparations.
Belgium, which has jurisdiction over Euroclear, the clearing house where most of Russia’s frozen sovereign assets are held, has rejected the proposal outright, insisting that the bloc and its members share the financial and reputational risks. Euroclear also vowed to sue the EU if such a plan goes ahead.
According to a European Commission letter cited by the outlet, the EU nations would need to either cough up at least €90 billion ($100 billion) in direct payments to Kiev over 2026 and 2027 or take on joint debt to issue a loan if the seizure plan does not work. Funneling money into Ukraine directly would cost the bloc’s member states between 0.16% and 0.27% of their GDPs, the document said.
Providing a loan would require the EU nations to “provide legally binding, unconditional, irrevocable and on-demand guarantees,” according to the paper. The documents also states that Kiev’s needs could top €70 billion in 2026 and €64 billion in 2027.
Servicing a collective loan for Kiev would result in up to €5.6 billion in annual interest payments for the EU, the Financial Times has earlier reported.
The EU has already stretched legal definitions by classifying the interest generated on the frozen funds as windfall profits as not belonging to Russia and using the funds to arm Kiev. The new plan hinges on the assumption that Russia will repay the loan as part of future reparations to Ukraine – an outcome widely deemed improbable.
Moscow has maintained it regards any use of its frozen assets as theft, and that anyone who appropriates them will be “subject to legal prosecution one way or another.”
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