Overview
- An EC document reported by the Financial Times says a legal framework for the permanent immobilization of Russian sovereign assets is the primary precondition for deploying them.
- Talks with Belgium, where most of the assets sit at Euroclear, were described as constructive yet failed to resolve Brussels’ legal and financial objections.
- The EC outlines joint EU borrowing as a fallback if member states do not back an asset-secured package, with annual servicing costs estimated at up to €5.6 billion.
- Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever demands full EU risk-sharing for liabilities tied to roughly €210 billion in Russian sovereign assets held in Belgium.
- EU and G7 measures froze about €300 billion in Russian reserves, with over €200 billion in the EU, and the bloc has already transferred up to €14 billion in 2025 from income on these assets to Ukraine.