Leaders across the European Union have agreed to help Ukraine fund its fight against Russia\u2019s invasion, but stopped short of approving a plan that would draw from frozen Russian assets to do so, after Belgium raised objections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
EU leaders met in Brussels on Thursday to discuss Ukraine\u2019s \u201cpressing financial needs\u201d for the next two years. Many leaders had hoped the talks would clear the way for a so-called \u201creparation loan\u201d, which would use frozen Russian assets held by the Belgian financial institution Euroclear to fund a loan of 140 billion euros ($163.3bn) for Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The EU froze about 200 billion euros ($232.4bn) of Russian central bank assets after the country launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In order to use the assets to fund Ukraine\u2019s war effort, the European Commission, the EU\u2019s executive, has floated a complex financial manoeuvre that involves the EU borrowing matured funds from Euroclear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That money would then, in turn, be loaned to Ukraine, on the understanding that Kyiv would only repay the loan if Russia pays reparations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The scheme would be \u201cfully guaranteed\u201d by the EU\u2019s 27 member states \u2013 who would have to ensure repayment themselves to Euroclear if they eventually decided Russia could reclaim the assets without paying reparations. Belgium, the home of Euroclear, objected to this plan on Thursday, with Prime Minister Bart De Wever calling its legality into question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russia has described the idea as an illegal seizure of property and warned of retaliation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following Thursday\u2019s political wrangling, a text approved by all the leaders \u2013 except Hungary\u2019s Prime Minister Viktor Orban \u2013 was watered down from previous drafts to call for \u201coptions for financial support based on an assessment of Ukraine\u2019s financing needs.\u201d Those options will be presented to European leaders at their next summit in December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRussia\u2019s assets should remain immobilised until Russia ceases its war of aggression against Ukraine and compensates it for the damage caused by its war,\u201d the declaration added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a guest at the summit, had urged a quick passage of the plan for the loan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnyone who delays the decision on the full use of frozen Russian assets is not only limiting our defence, but also slowing down the EU\u2019s own progress,\u201d he told the EU leaders, saying Kyiv would use a significant part of the funds to buy European weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following Thursday\u2019s political wrangling, a text approved by all the leaders \u2013 except Hungary\u2019s Prime Minister Viktor Orban \u2013 was watered down from previous drafts to call for \u201coptions for financial support based on an assessment of Ukraine\u2019s financing needs.\u201d Those options will be presented to European leaders at their next summit in December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRussia\u2019s assets should remain immobilised until Russia ceases its war of aggression against Ukraine and compensates it for the damage caused by its war,\u201d the declaration added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a guest at the summit, had urged a quick passage of the plan for the loan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnyone who delays the decision on the full use of frozen Russian assets is not only limiting our defence, but also slowing down the EU\u2019s own progress,\u201d he told the EU leaders, saying Kyiv would use a significant part of the funds to buy European weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The move followed United States President Donald Trump\u2019s announcement on Wednesday that Russia\u2019s two biggest oil companies would face US sanctions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday\u00a0struck a defiant tone\u00a0over the sanctions, saying they were an \u201cunfriendly act\u201d, and that Russia would not bend under pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Leaders across the European Union have agreed to help Ukraine fund its fight against Russia\u2019s invasion, but stopped short of approving a plan that would draw from frozen Russian assets to do so, after Belgium raised objections. EU leaders met in Brussels on Thursday to discuss Ukraine\u2019s \u201cpressing financial needs\u201d for the next two years. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":29538,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[6850,7358,6942,9042,1904,3977,539,11356,159,9505,6564,1195,12248,9643,5626,10321,5252,5342,7225,5612,5441,3805,3174,6544,71,3457,5217,12249,5713,5180,5555,6714,7231,9262,6348,694,11255,5251,5724,594,7932],"class_list":["post-47089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-aid","tag-bank","tag-belgium","tag-borrowing","tag-brussels","tag-central-bank","tag-delay","tag-delays","tag-eu","tag-european","tag-european-commission","tag-european-union","tag-frozen","tag-fund","tag-hungary","tag-illegal","tag-invasion","tag-kyiv","tag-loan","tag-money","tag-oil","tag-president","tag-prime-minister","tag-property","tag-putin","tag-russia","tag-russian","tag-russian-funds","tag-sanctions","tag-ukraine","tag-ukrainian","tag-ukrainian-president-volodymyr-zelenskyy","tag-union","tag-united-states","tag-us","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","tag-war","tag-weapons","tag-who","tag-zelenskyy"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47089"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47090,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47089\/revisions\/47090"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}