The president of the European Council, António Costa, has confirmed that The European Union will finance Ukraine with a loan of 90 billion eurosalthough it will not resort to those in the bloc for the moment, after the leaders of the Twentysiet have shelved this option due to the difficulties associated with that plan.
“We have an agreement,” said the former Portuguese prime minister in a message on social networks, after 16 hours of the European summit in Brussels marked by EU sanctions for a potential “reparation loan.” Costa has indicated that The EU “will provide 90 billion euros to Ukraine by 2026 and 2027”.
“We committed and we fulfilled,” Costa stressed, after the EU leaders arrived at the summit in Brussels, with differences over resorting to the liquidity of immobilized assets. During the marathon meeting, the heads of State and Government have not been able to bridge the differences due to the risks associated with the operation proposed by the European Commission and which the majority of leaders supported as the only viable one on the table.
Other countries would have joined the doubts expressed by Belgium, despite the fact that in much of the meeting the focus was on the use of Russian assets, while the European Commission was negotiating with Belgium a proposal for conclusions that fit the demands of Bart De Wever’s Executive.
“It is a decisive message for the end of the war, because Russian President Vladimir Putin will only make concessions when he realizes that his war will not bear fruit,” said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, in a statement released minutes after the 27 leaders reached the agreement for the interest-free loan to kyiv.
The German conservative has also highlighted that the frozen Russian assets “will remain blocked until Russia has paid reparations to Ukraine” and wanted to make it clear that kyiv will not have to return the loan to the Europeans until Russia pays those reparations. “If Russia does not pay the reparations, we will use, in full compliance with international law, the frozen Russian assets to repay the loan,” Merz defended.
The European Union will thus “urgently” provide a loan of 90 billion euros with “joint debt” for the coming years, as described by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, who has highlighted the commitment to “continue working” on the possibility of frozen Russian assets.
Sánchez also indicated that in a bilateral meeting in the morning with the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelensky, he defended that the Union “must financially support” Ukraine “for moral reasons, for reasons of justice and also because it is legal.”
