Belgium’s prime minister has poured cold water on the European Commission’s proposal to use immobilised Russian central bank assets to fund a ‘reparation loan’ to Ukraine.
The move throws a giant wrench in the EU executive’s plan to use the cash balances associated with €200 billion in frozen assets to support Kyiv’s budget needs and reconstruction.
Most of the assets are held in Euroclear, a Brussels-based clearing house – making Belgium a key player in EU negotiations.
“Taking Putin’s money and leaving the risks with [Belgium]. That’s not going to happen, let me be very clear about that,” Prime Minister Bart De Wever on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting in New York.
“If countries see that central bank money can disappear if European politicians see fit, they might decide to withdraw their reserves from the eurozone,” he added.
“If countries see that central bank money can disappear if European politicians see fit, they might decide to withdraw their reserves from the eurozone,” he added.
Maybe if they are planning to invade a peaceful democratic neighbor they should.
Fuck Belgium for being pussies!!! My respect for Belgium just dropped dramatically.
This has been planned for years now, and I thought it was practically a sure thing. Is Belgium playing lapdog to France?Fuck France too for saying this.
There will be a trial against Russia, and they will have to pay damages to Ukraine, and we must make sure they do.“If countries see that central bank money can disappear if European politicians see fit, they might decide to withdraw their reserves from the eurozone,” he added.
What’s the problem there? You don’t get the privilege of working with bloodthirsty imperialist powers like Putin’s Russia?
If someone’s about to do some shady shit, transferring all their money out is one more piece of information that could be observed and fed to the analysts to gauge how serious they are about it. Seems useful.
Belgium being Belgium.