Overview

• Belgium demands legally enforceable, EU‑wide guarantees covering current and future liabilities beyond €170 billion, with protections that persist after sanctions and immediate compensation if assets must be returned.
• The European Commission proposes using about €175 billion in cash balances linked to immobilized Russian state assets to underwrite a €140 billion reparations loan and repay an earlier G7 facility.
• Prime Minister Bart De Wever argues the plan amounts to quasi‑confiscation and could breach investment treaties or unsettle investors, while the Commission maintains the structure is non‑confiscatory under EU law.
• Euroclear, which holds most of the assets in Belgium and places the cash at the ECB, opposes expropriation, and the ECB warns formal seizure could undermine the euro as a reserve currency, as the Kremlin vows legal action.
• EU economy and finance ministers will review the loan design and guarantees on Oct. 10 in Luxembourg, with a political agreement targeted this month and first disbursements projected for the second quarter of 2026.