Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot on Friday He warned that the seizure of frozen Russian assets in Europe would cause a systemic shock that would probably destabilize the euro.
Frozen Russian funds worth approximately 200 billion euros are part of Western sanctions against Russia His invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and most of them are stored in the Euroclear depository in Belgium.
The Belgian Minister said that “For Belgium, the confiscation of Russian state assets is not an option.“In an interview with AFP, he explained that” such confiscation, motivated by political rather than a legal or judicial decision, would probably cause a terrible systemic shock in all European financial markets, to set a serious wound of euro credibility, and that would have a very problematic domino effect. “
Added that Such a violation of the rules would jeopardize investors’ confidence in Belgium and the European Union and negatively affected the credibility of European financial services. He argued that if any assets were to confiscate, many states could decide to invest elsewhere.
European Commission and Western Allies of Ukraine – including Britain – They promote the use of Russian assets to cover the damage caused by war, or to move them to a separate investment fund. Belgium – along with other countries – rejects such steps, which was confirmed last week at the meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Copenhagen.
Expected to Instead, the EU will now look for a way to ensure that frozen property is not returned to Russia until Moscow will replace all the damage caused by war in Ukraine. In an interview with AFP, this option supported this option and described as a necessity.
Prévot also said that Belgium as a member of the coalition willing to contribute to the post -war missions in Ukraine, especially through air support and possibly mine -mine. At the same time, the Minister criticized the EU for inactivity towards Israel. He stressed that war crimes and humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian Gaza Strip are unacceptable.
