Belgium's Prime Minister Bart De Wever (N-VA) is mistaken in his opposition to plans to use Russian assets frozen at Euroclear to support Ukraine in the coming years, according to former European Commission for Trade Karel De Gucht.
On Thursday, a crucial summit will take place to decide on the use of the €185 billion in frozen Russian assets for Ukraine. As is well known, De Wever is strongly opposed to this.
"He is wrong," said former EU Commissioner De Gucht on Flemish radio on Wednesday morning. "I do not see why we need to put ourselves in that position. Everyone agrees that Russia can do very little about it (...) and that they can only sue in Moscow."
Belgium has been under pressure for several weeks, although other capitals are now also questioning the plans. If the EU does decide to go ahead, De Wever is demanding firm guarantees.
"I think he is procrastinating too long and that we are losing some of the influence that Belgium could exert," De Gucht said.
He finds it understandable that De Wever is asking for guarantees to cover the risks, but "it's another thing entirely to start looking for risks everywhere," he said.
"It's not good to continue to take this stance and insist on being right about something where he is only right to a very limited extent."
An in-depth explainer on everything to know about Russia's frozen assets ahead of the EU summit on Thursday can be found here.
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