Foto: BB.LV / флаг Бельгии
De Wever stated that he is convinced the European Commission will not propose new operations with Russian assets to cover Ukraine's financial needs. "I am confident about this because that is exactly what was said," he said. However, he did not rule out that other member states might attempt to revisit the topic. He criticized his Dutch colleague Rob Jetten for his comments on the radio about wanting to "take that money." According to the Belgian Prime Minister, some new European leaders did not participate in last year's debates and are now putting forward arguments that he had previously managed to suppress at an early stage. He warned his colleagues that "even such statements" could have legal consequences, and according to him, this has worked. "One of my colleagues told me in the hallway that it was as if I walked through this discussion with a flamethrower," De Wever said. At the negotiating table, he added, there was no longer much enthusiasm for further consideration of the issue. At the EU leaders' summit on October 16, De Wever categorically opposed discussing the idea of using frozen assets of the Central Bank of Russia. It was previously reported that due to a lack of consensus at the summit, there would be no decisions on financing Ukraine and Russian assets. Meanwhile, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Vsevolod Chentsov proposed to use the frozen Russian funds in Europe in stages: in his opinion, such an idea could help change Belgium's position.
