Brussels: Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever emphasized that Brussels cannot shoulder the exclusive risk of utilizing frozen Russian assets located on its soil for a European Union loan to Ukraine, ahead of an EU summit set to deliberate on the matter. He has urged other EU member states to provide assurances to share any potential risks.

According to Qatar News Agency, Belgium is concerned about possible economic retaliations and legal challenges from Russia, especially since Euroclear, a financial institution based in Brussels, manages a substantial portion of the Russian Central Bank’s frozen assets in Europe. The European Commission’s proposal to employ these Russian assets to support Ukraine via a “compensation loan” has faced resistance from Belgium for several weeks.

The Belgian Prime Minister has stated, “Belgium continues to demand that the European Union, not Belgium alone, assume full financial responsibility for all the risks, which remain unknown to this day.”