Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever told reporters late on Thursday, the 20th of March, after a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels, that Europe would be committing an “act of war” by seizing frozen Russian assets worth almost 200 billion euros, reports Politico.
He warned that such a move would create “systemic risks for the entire global financial system” and trigger a response from Moscow.
De Wever’s warning comes at a time when European countries, including France, the UK and Spain, are slowly starting to consider the idea of confiscating frozen Russian assets that were seized after President Vladimir Putin launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Their aim is to use this money to strengthen Ukraine’s defences and strengthen its leverage in peace talks with Russia.
However, Belgium has a major influence in this process because Euroclear, the financial institution that holds most of the assets frozen in Europe, is based in Brussels.
The country is concerned that transferring the money to Ukraine could lead to more legal action against Euroclear by the owners of the assets.
Several groups have already filed claims against Euroclear in Russia’s politically influenced courts. They are challenging the freezing of their assets and demanding compensation.
“We do not live in a fantasy world. We live in the real world, where if someone is stripped of 200 billion euros, there will be consequences,” said De Weever.
Last year, the G7 agreed to use the profits from the assets – not the assets themselves – to lend 50 billion euros to Ukraine.
But several countries want to take the next step. Earlier this month, French lawmakers backed a non-binding resolution calling on the EU to take over the assets and use them to support Ukraine.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez backed this option at a closed-door meeting of EU leaders on the 6th of March, according to several EU diplomats.
De Weever warned his colleagues to refrain from publicly “presenting the frozen and immobilised assets as Putin’s little piggy bank which can simply be smashed with a hammer and then withdrawn and spent as you want… because it’s just not that simple”.