Belgium meets with EU experts to discuss use of frozen Russian assets

The European Commission has stepped up its efforts to ease Belgian concerns over its plan to use frozen Russian assets to fund a loan for Ukraine, with senior officials due to meet on Friday.

On Friday, senior Commission experts are set to meet with the team of Belgian prime minister Bart De Wever to discuss a proposal that would see around 140 billion euros of frozen Russian assets channelled into a recovery loan for Ukraine, according to De Standaard.

The meeting follows a week of intense discussions aimed at preventing a repeat of the 23 October summit, during which De Wever opposed Commission president Ursula von der Leyen's proposal to mobilise the Russian central bank assets held by Euroclear in Brussels.

Legal risks

De Wever argued that his government had not received sufficient guarantees to safeguard Belgium against potential financial and legal risks should the Russian funds ever be unfrozen. The Commission maintained that the risks were overstated and that the proposal did not constitute confiscation.

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With broad support from several EU countries, including Germany and France, pressure is mounting on Belgium to back the plan at a December summit. While De Wever insists that Belgium will not block the plan on principle, he continues to demand clear legal guarantees and shared liability among member states should Moscow seek compensation.

The aim of this week's talks is to allay Belgium's concerns about the risks as much as possible, in order to pave the way for the smooth approval of a concrete Commission proposal at the end of December.

Meanwhile, it seems that Russia may also be ramping up the pressure. This week, air traffic at Belgian airports was halted several times due to sightings of drones. Until recently, Belgium was not considered a target for Russian hybrid threats, but tensions have escalated amid discussions about the use of frozen Russian assets.

^{Bart De Wever, Belgium's prime minister, and Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, at a European Council summit in March 2025 © PHOTO HANS LUCAS VIA AFP}