Belgian Defense Minister Theo Francken warned on his X account on Oct. 24, that seizing frozen Russian assets—euphemistically called “reparation loans”—would “not rebuild Ukraine but will continue the war.”
Most of the frozen assets are housed in Belgium at the Euroclear clearinghouse, and are estimated at around $300 billion. If these were confiscated by the EU—and the EU has announced its intention to do so—Francken also emphasized in his post that: “The problem is that this sets a precedent with potentially enormous consequences. Because if we know that state-owned banks’ money can no longer be safely placed with a by definition neutral body like Euroclear, who will dare to do so anymore?” He noted that, “Even during the Second World War, such a questionable confiscation was never carried out.”
