Il primo ministro belga de Wever: “Sono disposto a usare i beni russi congelati (€ 185b congelati in Belgio), ma ho bisogno di certezza legale e solidarietà da parte di altri Stati membri dell’UE per condividere i rischi coinvolti”.
https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/liveblog/premier-de-wever-over-bevroren-russisch-geld-we-zijn-bereid-om~1758694365422/
di BelgianPolitics
9 commenti
*Translation Dutch to English*
Belgium is prepared to use the frozen Russian assets in our country to support Ukraine, but first a number of urgent questions need to be answered. That was the message this morning from Prime Minister Bart De Wever (N-VA) at a press conference in Copenhagen, where the issue was discussed yesterday at an informal European summit.
The discussion about Russian assets at Euroclear, a large Belgian financial company specializing in managing foreign money, has been going on for a long time. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the company has frozen Russian assets. The profits made on these assets are already going to support Ukraine, but there are increasing calls to use the money itself.
This amounts to around €185 billion. Money that could be put to good use, now that the US is increasingly withdrawing. “We are prepared to use it, but there are a number of questions that need to be answered,” said De Wever. “There are major legal and financial risks.” De Wever is asking other countries to show their willingness to share those risks.
In addition to solidarity, the prime minister wants transparency. According to him, other European countries also have Russian assets, but ours is the only one that sends the profits to Ukraine. Finally, De Wever warns of countermeasures from Russia that could hit Western companies and banks hard.
Hahaha, he talked a big game, but I knew the instant pressured got applied, he would buckle.
This is the first time De Wever has opened the door to using those assets (because a lot of EU countries seem to be in favour). Apparently he wants all EU Member States to sign a legal document stating that any legal consequences and risks associated with this decision would be shared by all EU Member States and not just Belgium.
This is a terrible idea – he has not thought this through, and what the real-world ramifications of this are.
The funds should remain frozen.
If this is true in the strictest sense, implementing it would be a massive logistical challenge. Curious to see how it actually plays out
As I see it, he is afraid that the confiscation of Russian assets will set a precedent for the possible seizure of other countries’ assets in the future (for example, the seizure of Saudi Arabia’s assets due to the Khashoggi case, China’s suppression of national and religious minorities in Xinjiang and Tibet, etc.), and that these countries will begin to reduce their assets by transferring them to other countries or forms of storage (gold, etc.) that are less liquid but more secure.
What guarantees should be given to such countries so that they do not fear for their assets?
Let me translate that for you:
“I am not going to do anything because our scarecrow Hungary would boycot everything in EU and NATO, but I want to look good by using empty shallow words”
Hand the funds over to Ukraine as repatriations
If Europe opens this door, no one will take us seriously in the future as reliable financial partners.