resounding failure of the European Union’s plan to finance Ukraine with frozen Russian funds through a “reparations loan”, which Brussels intended to be the Kremlin who will pay the costs of the war.
After a marathon day of more than 15 hours of discussions, the European leaders have not been able to overcome the resistance of the Belgian Prime Minister, Bart de Weverwho is afraid of retaliation from the Kremlin for what he himself has described as a “confiscation” of the assets of the Central Bank of Russia.
Most of this money – 185,000 million out of a total of 210,000 million – is deposited in Euroclearthe Brussels-based financial company. Therefore, community leaders They have not dared to carry out the “reparations loan” with the vote against De Wevereven though they could legally do so.
As a temporary solution, the heads of State and Government have agreed to grant kyiv a loan of up to 90 billion euros for the next two years, which will be financed with an issue of joint European debt using the EU budget as collateral.
In a surprising turn of events, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia – the Kremlin’s closest allies within the EU – have approved using the community budget to issue Eurobonds, a measure that requires the unanimous support of all 27 member states.