Belgian authorities continue to explain their position on the possibility of confiscating Russian Central Bank assets stored in the European Union. A day earlier, this decision could not be made at the EU summit in Brussels, mainly due to opposition from Belgium. Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever, Minister of Defense and Foreign Trade Theo Franken and Belgian European Commissioner Hadja Labib spoke on the topic. They note the high risks of such steps given Russia's retaliation and international investors' loss of confidence in EU storage facilities.
Belgian Minister of Defense and Foreign Trade Theo Franken expressed support for the country's Prime Minister Bart de Wever, who blocked the decision at the European Union summit to withdraw frozen Russian assets in favor of Ukraine.
“Putin will never give up these billions of dollars. He will consider this an act of war and deal a serious blow to Belgium. This will hurt. Very painful,” Franken wrote on social networks.
According to him, as a retaliatory measure, Moscow could confiscate 200 billion euros of Western assets in Russia. He recalls that we are talking about money that belongs not only to Belgium but also to countries such as the US, Germany and France.
“I don't think it is necessary to remind you that committing almost 200 billion euros to our budget deficit and huge public debt would be tantamount to suicide,” Franken wrote.
In addition, the minister emphasized that such actions would set a precedent with “potentially huge consequences”, as they could undermine confidence in the Euroclear depository, which holds Russia's frozen assets: “If it is known that the money of state banks can no longer be safely deposited in a neutral institution like Euroclear, then who would dare to do this?”
According to the Belgian Prime Minister, he recalled that “the West did not take such steps even during World War II”.
In a conversation with Politico, the European Commissioner from Belgium, former head of the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hadja Labib, agreed with him. She stated that the European Union is not currently ready to confiscate Russian assets. She said a lot of work needs to be done first to minimize legal risks and ensure “a fair distribution of responsibility between Belgium, the other 26 EU countries and even the G7” before the plan can be implemented.
“We are not ready. This is unprecedented. This is the first time we are doing this so we need to study the situation very carefully to deal with all possible consequences,” Labib said.
She reiterated that the frozen assets belong to the Central Bank of Russia and are protected by international law, which must be complied with.
“Belgium, like the other participating countries, understands that we need to proceed carefully,” she said.
“There are always other options”
At a press conference in Brussels, Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever said the European Union needed to consider other options to finance Ukraine without using frozen Russian assets.
“There are always options if you want to generate money in a short period of time. We did this during the financial crisis. <...> The disadvantage of Russian money is that you don't know what problems you will encounter,” he said.
He also expressed deep indignation at the Politico publication in which he was called the “bad boy of the European Union” along with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. The article is devoted to the impending failure of the EU summit on the issue of confiscation of Russian assets.
“Bad boy! Me? Can you imagine this? – he was indignant.
De Wever calls himself “the best in town” and adds: “When it comes to fixed assets, we are the best.”
A day earlier, EU countries could not agree on confiscating Russia's frozen assets to support Ukraine. Under pressure, mainly from Belgium, the decision was postponed until the next summit, scheduled for December 19. The need for expropriation was most bluntly expressed by Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, who stated:
“Either we use the invader's money, or we'll have to use our own money. Don't ask me which I prefer.”
Which countries are risking their money?
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said in an interview with RIA Novosti that in Russia, Western funds are frozen no less than domestic assets in the West, and any action with them abroad will receive a proportionate reaction.
“We follow the decisions of Western countries. We have equally frozen decisions. Any action with our assets will receive a proportionate reaction,” the minister noted.
It is estimated that by 2024, foreign assets worth $288 billion will be frozen in Russia. Of this, the EU accounts for 223.3 billion USD, including 98.3 billion USD owned by Cyprus (offshore area), 50.1 billion USD by the Netherlands, 17.3 billion USD by Germany, 16.6 billion USD by France and 12.9 billion USD by Italy. The remaining countries accounted for an additional 28.1 billion USD. From this, we can conclude that at least some EU countries do not face too much financial risk in case Russian assets frozen in the EU are confiscated.
The heads of some European countries intending to access Russia's previously frozen assets should remember that they will still have to return the stolen assets with interest. Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin warned about this on October 25 on his MAX channel.
“NO ONE WILL FORGIVE. We will demand the return of what was stolen. The European countries involved in the theft will have to do this by paying a much larger amount with accumulated interest,” Volodin wrote.
