Depending on who you speak to, either just took a cautious step toward using frozen assets to fund Ukraine — or kicked the can down the road and left their summit mired in even more legal and financial questions than when they walked in.
There was no endorsement of a massive €140 billion ($163 billion) loan for Ukraine that some states had been pushing for. Instead, leaders issued a much vaguer commitment to “addressing Ukraine’s pressing financial needs” for the next two years, and vowed to revisit the issue of Russian assets in December.
“We agreed on the ‘what’ — that is the reparation loan, and we have to work on the ‘how’ — how we make it possible,” European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels after the talks.
Standing by her side, Council chief Antonio Costa insisted no one had vetoed anything, while Germany’s Friedrich Merz called the outcome “a step forward.”
‘Risky business’
But two floors below, Belgium’s prime minister Bart De Wever told journalists another side of the story. His country is home to Euroclear, the financial institution which hosts the bulk of some €200 billion in by the EU when Moscow launched its of Ukraine.
De Wever warned that the legal “uncharted territory” of using the cash for Ukraine now would trigger costly Russian retaliation and scare off future investors.
“It’s risky business. Besides the counter-confiscations and counter-measures, we will be buried in litigation,” he said, adding that his concerns had not yet been answered.
Last year, the EU — but the idea under discussion now would go further by targeting the assets themselves, without seizing them outright.
Russian news agency TASS quoted a foreign ministry spokesperson in Moscow promising a “very painful, very harsh” response if Brussels pursues its plan.
De Wever suggested other states outside the EU where Russian funds are also frozen should be willing to run the same risks, pointing to Canada, the UK, Switzerland, Japan and the US. “The fattest chicken is in Belgium but there are other chickens around,” he quipped.
“It would be almost poetic that Ukraine supported the Russian money. It’s a ‘Robin Hood’ story. For public opinion, it’s a bestseller,” De Wever said, “but on the other hand, the back side of the envelope is real.”
December: yes or no?
Thursday’s non-decision will now usher in months of legal research and wrangling as the EU’s executive tries to draw up a solution that might meet Belgium’s demand for “concrete” guarantees.
On paper, there are other ways the EU could offer Ukraine the funds it says are urgently needed to stay afloat — like by taking on . But that’s even less likely to garner sufficient backing from the bloc’s members within the coming weeks.
Poland’s Donald Tusk, who has long pushed the EU to send Russia’s cash to Ukraine, insisted that December must be the “final deadline” for a “yes or no” decision. “We are trying to convince our Belgian friends that we are ready to build a mechanism of shared, pan-European responsibility,” he said.
Green light for gas sanctions
But while leaders failed to seal the deal on future loans, they did manage to
Early Thursday morning, EU states agreed to ban imports of Russian liquified natural gas (LNG) from 2027, advancing a deadline agreed by energy ministers earlier this week.
The new sanctions target Russian crypto currency transfers and see more tankers from the so-called “shadow fleet” Moscow uses to evade existing oil sanctions added to a blacklist.
For the first time, the EU also sanctioned two Chinese refineries which process and sell Russian oil. Beijing swiftly promised to “take the necessary measures to resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises,” according to Xinhua news agency.
Trump’s Russia sanctions
Those announcements of fresh EU restrictions came hot on the heels of the US hitting two Russian fossil fuel giants with its own sanctions.
Russia said Washington’s move would have little impact on its economy, but French President Emmanuel Macron called it “a true turning point.”
“Until now, the US had refused,” he told journalists in Brussels late Thursday night.
Given that just a few days ago, leaders feared could soon be cozying up to Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Hungary — EU’s most Russia-friendly state — Kyiv’s European allies may well feel some relief as they head back to their capitals.
“It’s the Trump rollercoaster. Things go up, things go down, a lot of turbulence,” Steven Everts, a former EU official turned analyst with the European Institute for Security Studies, told DW ahead of the summit.
“The most important thing that Europeans need to do now is to really step on the accelerator when it comes to the diplomacy. We’ve got to stay in the game,” he said. “Let’s not just wait until the next announcements come from here or from there. Pick up the phone, fly to DC yourself. And secondly, step up support for Ukraine.”
Teri Schultz, Michal Gostkiewicz, Nathan Canas and Marie Joslyn contributed to reporting from Brussels.
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