Belgium shot a hole in the EU’s shady scheme. From Ian Proud at strategic-culture.su:
It’s time to ditch the dreamers and get back to diplomacy
Brussels was the centre of the pro-war universe on 18 December as the European Commission tried to bludgeon the resistance out of Belgian Prime Minister, Bart de Wever. He had stood firm against the plan to use immobilised Russian assets to underwrite the war in Ukraine and never looked likely to budge. He didn’t budge and the European Commission gamble failed in spectacular fashion.
De Wever didn’t dig his sturdy defensive positions out of any particular sympathy with Russia. He did so on the basis of a rational analysis of the significant legal and financial risks his country would face should it agree to an illegal expropriation of assets frozen in Belgium.
Any realist observer of events could see that the EU proposal was illegal and tantamount to theft and would never succeed. Last night’s denouement has been predictable since the idea first gathered steam in 2024 to give Ukraine Russia’s frozen assets with no questions asked.
The idea didn’t lose its lustre even after the refusal to ask questions of Ukraine’s leaderships has led to billions in foreign aid being pilfered by those in charge.
No, the Commissions said, this idea was really rooted in the need to protect the economic security of the European Union. While at the same time calling it a reparations loan, when it was obvious to impartial observers that the money would simply be tipped into a massive gold rimmed hole of Ukrainian state finances.
That hole, by the way, will remain gaping for as long as the war continues, and for some years after it ends. And this loan will only cover two years of budgetary shortfalls in Ukraine, with no one asking who would pay from 2028. Unless the war ends, European taxpayers will have to pay to keep Ukraine on life support.
And they’ll have to pay more than the Commission is letting on as the loan agreed last night will only cover two thirds of Ukraine’s financing needs, and when it runs out the Ukrainians will be back to ask for more.
