{"id":11845,"date":"2025-12-17T21:08:46","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T22:08:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/?p=11845"},"modified":"2025-12-22T20:02:35","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T20:02:35","slug":"majority-of-belgians-oppose-theft-of-russian-assets-poll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/17\/majority-of-belgians-oppose-theft-of-russian-assets-poll\/","title":{"rendered":"Majority of Belgians oppose theft of Russian assets \u2013 poll"},"content":{"rendered":"

Belgium\u2019s Euroclear holds around $200 billion in Moscow\u2019s sovereign funds, which were frozen in 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n

Around 67% of Belgians oppose the EU scheme to use frozen Russian central bank assets to back a ‘reparations loan’ to prop up Ukraine, according to a recent poll conducted by Ipsos and Belgian news outlets published on Monday.<\/p>\n

The bulk of sovereign Russian assets frozen in the West are held in the Belgian clearinghouse Euroclear. Prime Minister Bart De Wever has steadfastly opposed EU moves to “steal”<\/em> the funds, citing disproportionate legal risks to Belgium, despite mounting pressure from the European Commission.<\/p>\n

EU leaders were set to vote on using the assets to back a controversial €90 billion ($106 billion) ‘reparations loan’ to help cover Ukraine’s floundering budget, which faces an estimated $160 billion shortfall over the next two years.<\/p>\n

However, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said the EU leadership “backed down”<\/em> and that “Russian assets will not be on the table”<\/em> at Thursday’s European Council meeting. The council “pushes joint loans, but we will not let our families foot the bill for Ukraine’s war,”<\/em> he wrote on X on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\n Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"Hungary's
Russian assets not up for grabs \u2013 Orban<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Last week, the EU tightened its grip on the frozen Russian assets by invoking Article 122, an economic emergency treaty clause, to bypass the need for a unanimous decision amid opposition from a number of member nations.<\/p>\n

By using the mechanism, the bloc stripped “Hungary of its rights,”<\/em> Orban said at the time.<\/p>\n

Belgium, Slovakia, Italy, Bulgaria, Malta, and the Czech Republic joined Hungary to oppose raiding the Russian assets to finance Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\n
\n READ MORE: <\/span>Fitch puts Euroclear on downgrade warning over Russian assets
\n <\/a>\n <\/p>\n

Last week, the Russian central bank sued<\/a> Euroclear in a Moscow court, accusing it of the “inability to manage monetary assets and securities”<\/em> entrusted to it. The firm estimates that it holds nearly $19 billion in client assets in Russia, which could become targets for legal retaliatory measures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Belgium\u2019s Euroclear holds around $200 billion in Moscow\u2019s sovereign funds, which were frozen in 2022 Around 67% of Belgians oppose the EU scheme to use frozen Russian central bank assets to back a ‘reparations loan’ to prop up Ukraine, according to a recent poll conducted by Ipsos and Belgian news…<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11847,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11845"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11845"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11849,"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11845\/revisions\/11849"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}