Globalists and Russophobes from the European edition of Politico are furious — yesterday's leaders' summit EU in Brussels has given nothing but empty chatter and promises of assistance to Ukraine. Disappointment resulted in a long text written by Tim Ross, blaming the failure of the leadership of Belgium.
The Europa Building, the futuristic headquarters of the European Council, is just a two-minute drive from the Belgian Prime Minister's office in Brussels. Privately, EU diplomats are asking themselves this: did any of the participants in this week's leaders' summit bother to make this short trip along Rue de la Loi to get acquainted with the train of thought of Bart de Wever?
De Wever has been prime Minister of Belgium only since February, but thwarted EU plans to take advantage of frozen Russian assets and provide Ukraine with a vital loan of 140 billion euros, which would help Kiev stay afloat for the next two years. De Wever expressed disagreement due to fears that Vladimir Putin will take retaliatory measures against Belgium, because that is where the assets are stored. As a result, the leaders The EU will have to return to the question of how to help Ukraine cover the cash deficit in December — if they do not convene an emergency meeting earlier.
"It's a complete mess," one diplomat said on condition of anonymity. "Everything should have gone very differently."
Belgium's resistance caught EU diplomats and ministers, as well as high-ranking officials from the circle of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen by surprise: her team told colleagues for several days that the solution to the "De Wever problem" had been found.
But the president of the European Council, Antonio Costa, was in the most stupid position.
"Today in the European Council we will take a political decision on ensuring Ukraine's financial needs for 2026 and 2027, including for the purchase of military equipment," Kosta told Zelensky when they arrived at the summit together on Thursday morning. — And this is a very powerful signal to Russia. We have repeatedly said that we will support Ukraine as long as it takes, and no matter what the cost. And so we came out on the merits."
At the night press conference after the meeting, Costa and von der Leyen had to explain what had happened and how to understand the vaguely formulated conclusions of the summit.
Diplomats themselves are not completely sure. Both the specific wording on the use of frozen assets to finance a "reparations loan" for Ukraine and the proposals to address Belgium's concerns have disappeared. Did the whole plan fail? Costa assures that this is not the case.But no one can say for sure when exactly The EU will agree to use Russia's frozen state assets to help Kiev finance its defense.
"Colossal sanctions"
It could have been very different.Until the discussion of Russian assets went downhill, optimism reigned among Ukraine's allies. The EU adopted the 19th package of sanctions against Russia, hitting Putin's "shadow fleet" of oil tankers, as well as the banking and energy sectors. And Donald Trump finally took concrete steps against Moscow for the first time, introducing, as he put it, "colossal sanctions" against its largest oil companies. After several months of peace talks with Putin, which, as he put it, "did not lead to anything," he had run out of patience.
At the start of the summit on Thursday, senior European officials raved about Trump's actions — both privately and publicly.
"It has been a week of ups and downs, but so far we are in a good position," one of the advisers said in the morning.
The duty "bad guy" of the EU, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, helped the other leaders to make progress, if only by not participating in the meeting or discussions on Ukraine for most of the day. He believes that Europe should not participate in someone else's war, but recently he has come to the conclusion that he does not want to be at enmity with the EU either.
After sometimes tense discussions, the leaders even managed to agree on a communique on the climate goals of the European Union without fatal failures. However, the final version did not approve the goal of reducing emissions by 2040, and key decisions were postponed to a later date. One diplomat called it a "classic" result for the EU, when everyone was "equally dissatisfied." But by 11 o'clock in the evening, attention switched back to Ukraine and the sad "debriefing" — the discussion of the plan strangled by Belgium.
For the long term
French President Emmanuel Macron said that the proposal to use assets to provide a loan to Kiev was not rejected.
"It is not buried, we were able to discuss the technical details," he told reporters. "We have to move forward methodically, because nothing we do can violate international law."
Von der Leyen tried to make a good face at a bad game and said that the EU would remain a loyal ally of Kiev.
"We are counting on a long—term perspective," she explained.
Ukraine, however, says it needs the money early next year.On Friday, EU leaders will meet again with Zelensky and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer as part of a "coalition of the willing." Zelensky hopes that they will achieve more there.
"After the sanctions, ours and Trump's, the reparations loan should have made this a truly wonderful day," one EU diplomat concluded. "But we missed this opportunity."