At the centre of the EU's stalled plan to fund Ukraine through frozen Russian assets sits a single Brussels institution, Euroclear, which holds roughly 185 billion euros belonging to Russia's central bank, immobilised since shortly after the 2022 invasion.
That money already generates real income for Ukraine. Euroclear earned around 5.2 billion euros in interest on the balances in 2022 and 2023, taxed by Belgium at 25 percent for roughly 1.3 billion euros in government revenue, and since a rule change in February 2024, the after tax profits themselves have been passed on to Kyiv, a flow Belgium says could reach up to 3 billion euros a year.
A goose Belgium does not want cooked
The bigger fight is over a separate proposal, a so called reparations loan that would draw on the underlying 185 billion euros itself rather than just the interest it earns, on top of the roughly 90 billion euro support package already agreed. Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever has used a pointed metaphor to explain his resistance, warning that the plan amounted to cooking the goose that lays the golden eggs, and demanding a full and uncapped guarantee from EU partners against the risk of Russian legal claims before he would agree to it.
De Wever's concerns are not only rhetorical. Russia's central bank has already sued Euroclear over the immobilised funds, and Belgian officials worry that using the assets outright, rather than just their earnings, could expose the clearing house, and by extension Belgium, to major legal and financial liability if sanctions are ever lifted or a peace settlement leaves Russia without an obligation to pay full reparations. The demand for an uncapped guarantee proved a step too far for other capitals, including Rome and Paris, and the reparations loan has been shelved for now, leaving the smaller interest based contribution as the main channel through which Russia's frozen money reaches Ukraine.