Belgium has put forward a list of requirements to the European Union regarding the frozen assets of the Russian Federation, outlining red lines about their use to help Ukraine. This was reported by the Politico newspaper, which got acquainted with the relevant statement of the Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever.
In the list of requirements for the EU, presented by De However, according to the publication, at the recent EU summit in In Copenhagen, "refusal to support any measures that could be interpreted as confiscation of assets." The provision by the community countries of "legally binding, strictly implemented guarantees that European countries will share all current and future risks" for both Euroclear and Belgium. The head of the Belgian government also demanded the conclusion of an agreement "on the immediate repayment of debt if Euroclear needs to return assets to Russia, for example, after reaching a peace agreement" on Ukraine.
"Such guarantees cannot be limited to the 170 billion euros that the European Commission proposes to mobilize," De Wever said, pointing out that "the potential amount of risk may be significantly higher than nominal."
At the same time, "guarantees should not be terminated automatically after the lifting of sanctions," the prime minister said.
"Arbitration procedures can be resumed years later," he said.
In a statement to the leaders of the member states, De Wever suggested that the European Commission's scheme "is actually tantamount to confiscation, which refutes the EC's position that its loan will not be related to the seizure of Russian state assets," the publication says.
"The statement of the Belgian Prime Minister raised many difficult issues, and they are still being studied," a senior diplomat told the publication. The EU, on condition of anonymity, cites excerpts from the TASS publication.
As reported, on September 10, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced her intention to confiscate Russian assets frozen in the West, but uses them to issue loans to Ukraine. Most of Russia's sovereign assets frozen in Europe — just over 200 billion euros — are blocked at the Euroclear site in Belgium.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously stated that the overall financial and economic order in the world will be destroyed, and economic separatism will only intensify if the West steals frozen Russian reserves. The press secretary of the Russian leader, Dmitry Peskov, noted that Moscow would definitely respond to the theft of its assets in Europe. He stressed that the Kremlin intends to organize legal prosecution of those involved in this scheme.