The European Central Bank has reportedly refused to guarantee a €140 billion payment to Ukraine, undermining the EU’s plan to finance a “reparations loan” based on frozen Russian assets. The Financial Times writes this, citing multiple officials. According to the newspaper, the ECB believes that the European Commission’s proposal would violate its mandate, further complicating Brussels’ attempt to raise funds using Russian central bank assets blocked at Euroclear, the Belgian securities depository. (
The refusal further complicates the European project to raise the maxi-loan using the Russian central bank’s assets tied up at Euroclear, while Brussels remains under pressure to support Ukraine over the next two years, in a context of liquidity shortages in Kiev, new Russian offensives and diplomatic initiatives advanced by Washington.
The Commission, writes the Financial Times, provided for public guarantees from member states, but according to officials, governments would not be able to quickly raise funds in the event of an emergency. Hence the rejected request to have the ECB intervene as lender of last resort for Euroclear Bank. After the Eurotower’s no, Brussels is working on alternative solutions to ensure the necessary liquidity.
The EU, the newspaper recalls, has so far frozen 210 billion euros of Russian assets, but Belgium opposes the loan, fearing that, if the assets were unfrozen and returned to Moscow, Euroclear would not be able to reimburse them. Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever, we read, has defined the plan as “fundamentally wrong” and demands legal and irrevocable guarantees from the other 26 states before the summit on 18 December, recalling that the sanctions must be renewed every six months unanimously and some countries, including Hungary, contest the renewal