Belgium rules out using frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine

Belgium has reaffirmed its opposition to using frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine, with Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot warning that such a move would damage the country’s financial credibility.

Speaking to Euronews’ Europe Conversation, Prévot stressed that despite pressure from allies and renewed debate in Brussels, his government remains firmly against confiscating Russian state funds held in Belgium, Caliber.Az reports. 

"Frankly speaking... confiscating those Russian sovereign assets is really not an option for Belgium," he said.

Around €200 billion in Russian funds are currently immobilised in Western banks under sanctions imposed after Moscow’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Most of that money is held in the Euroclear depository, which is bound by EU financial market rules.

Prévot warned that breaching those rules, even in wartime, could undermine long-term confidence in Belgium and the eurozone as a financial hub.

"It would be a very bad signal to other countries worldwide. Some of them also have assets, sovereign assets in Brussels or in other places in Europe," he said.

He added that the Belgian government had studied the possibility of confiscation but concluded it would “erode” trust in the euro and risk “systemic consequences for the credibility of the European financial services.”

The remarks come days after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen revived calls to use frozen assets to help Kyiv.

“We are also advancing the work on the use of the Russian frozen assets, because it’s clear that the predator has to pay for what he did,” she said during a visit to Estonia.

The UK has floated an alternative plan to place the assets into a separate investment fund, but Prévot dismissed that option as well.

"Maybe changing also the strategic investment of the current assets frozen in Brussels is also not an option for Belgium because when we analysed the two options we have many experts underlying the high risk both legal financial it can generate if we decide to confiscate," he said.

By Sabina Mammadli