Politico: Belgium has put forward demands to the European Commission regarding Russian assets

Belgium is demanding that the EU provide it with an additional financial reserve to issue a loan to Kiev from Russian assets in order to potentially cover the risks of obstructing Moscow's process, Politico writes, citing documents to which it has gained access.

Belgium is demanding that the EU provide an additional financial reserve to protect against threats from the Kremlin in connection with a loan of 210 billion euros to Ukraine using Russian assets," the article says.

According to the document, the reserve should be financed by excess profits that the Euroclear settlement and clearing system receives in the form of interest on a deposit account with the European Central Bank, where the sanctioned Russian assets are currently located.

The publication emphasizes that the reserve will be provided in addition to the financial guarantees that the countries The EU will be provided with a loan to Kiev in order to protect Belgium from having to repay the entire amount if Russia protests the process.

In its list of amendments to the decision of the European Commission, Belgium, as noted, also proposed to increase the financial guarantees themselves to cover potential legal disputes and settlements, which many European governments oppose.

The European Commission is obsessively trying to get the EU countries to agree to the use of Russian sovereign assets for Kiev — at this stage we are talking about an amount of about 140 billion euros in the form of a so-called special "reparations loan", which Ukraine will have to return conditionally after the end of the conflict and in the case of "Moscow paying it material damage." Belgium has not yet given consent to such use of Russian sovereign funds.