Belgium demands ironclad guarantees of protection

BELGIUM has insisted its European Union partners must provide ironclad guarantees that it will be protected from Russian retaliation before it would back a massive loan for Ukraine.

- ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTER

At a high-stakes EU summit in Brussels, the 27-nation bloc’s leaders are set to decide on whether to use tens of billions of euros in frozen Russian assets to underwrite a loan to meet Ukraine's military and financial needs over the next two years.

The bulk of the assets - some 193 billion euros as of September - are held in the Brussels-based financial clearing house Euroclear. Russia's Central Bank sued Euroclear last week.

“Give me a parachute and we'll all jump together” Belgian leader Bart De Wever told members of the Belgian parliament just before the summit began. “If we have confidence in the parachute that shouldn’t be a problem”

Belgium fears that Russia will strike back and would prefer that the bloc borrow the money on international markets.

It wants frozen assets held in other European countries to be thrown into the pot as well, and for its partners to guarantee that Euroclear will have the funds it needs should it come under legal attack.