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Bart De Wever, the prime minister of Belgium, has directly called on the European Commission and all member states to provide decisive answers and robust guarantees before using Russia's immobilised assets to issue a €140 billion loan to Ukraine, an audacious plan that is set to test the limits of international law.
"I want the maximum of legal certainty. I want solidarity. And I want transparency on the situation in the other countries," De Wever said in a press conference on Thursday, held on the sidelines of a European summit in Copenhagen.
"I don't think this is an unreasonable position."
The proposal devised by the Commission has thrown Belgium under the spotlight: the country houses Euroclear, the central securities depository that holds the bulk of the Russian Central Bank's assets frozen by Western allies in the early days of the war.
Under the scheme, which is still in early stages, Euroclear would transfer the cash balances to the Commission.
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