Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever has set a final condition for making frozen Russian state assets available to Ukraine as a reparations loan, while warning of a hasty decision.
Other EU countries would have to provide legally binding and unconditional guarantees covering the entire sum of the loan before he would be ready to agree to the measure, De Wever wrote to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in a letter seen by dpa on Friday.
Von der Leyen, alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, has been pushing to make up to €140 billion ($162 billion) in Russian central bank assets available to Ukraine to cover the country's financial needs in the coming years.
Belgium, where most of the assets are held, has blocked the initiative so far. EU leaders will revert to the issue at an upcoming summit in December.
In his letter, De Wever also reiterates several legal and financial concerns, including risks to the stability of the euro and the costs of potentially successful arbitration by Russia in court.
Rather than using Russia's assets, the Belgian premier urges the EU to raise money on the capital markets to cover Ukraine's financial needs of €45 billion in 2026.
This would be less risky and ultimately cheaper, De Wever argues.
In the letter, De Wever also warns that a hasty decision on the reparations loan could undermine ongoing US-led efforts to end Russia's war in Ukraine.
He argues that Russia's assets frozen under EU sanctions will play a central role in the negotiations and "will have to be made fully available."