BREAKING NEWS: ‘We expected more’: EU plan for frozen Russian assets fails – Politico

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Ultimately, Kyiv’s funding was secured, but not in the way that most of the EU wanted.

European governments failed to reach an agreement on the transfer of frozen Russian assets to Ukraine following a summit in Brussels, which was a serious blow to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, writes Politico .

Instead, the countries had to agree on an emergency backup plan based on joint EU debt, which had been promoted for weeks by Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever and was considered unlikely until the final hours before the deal was struck. In another blow to EU unity, three countries – Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic – will not participate.

“Ultimately, after today, our support for Ukraine is guaranteed,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said after the summit.

While the agreement allows everyone to claim victory, it is not the solution that Germany and the EC advocated for in the run-up to this summit.

“Of course, some people didn’t like it… they want to punish [Russian President Vladimir] Putin by taking his money,” De Wever said, referring to the original plan to use the Russian assets. “But ‘politics is not an emotional business, and rationality has prevailed.'”

The leaders agreed to jointly borrow 90 billion euros to finance a two-year loan to Ukraine. This would be guaranteed by the EU’s common budget. While this option was attractive to the countries of the South, it did not enjoy the support of Germany and its northern European allies, who have traditionally opposed guaranteeing bonds for their more indebted counterparts.

As a concession to Germany, the leaders have opened up the possibility of using frozen Russian assets to repay a loan to Ukraine. But this is an issue that remains to be resolved in the future.

“Of course, this is not the first option, but the most important thing is that funding for Ukraine has been secured,” said one of the EU government representatives.

“You probably know the cartoon “Frozen”? I still want to believe that in the end it will thaw and there will be a happy ending,” added the second EU government representative.

But “we expected more,” they said.

Financing Ukraine

On the morning of December 19, after 15 hours of negotiations in Brussels, the European Union approved a decision to finance Ukraine with 90 billion euros for 2026-27.

“We have an agreement. The decision to provide Ukraine with 90 billion euros in support for 2026-27 has been made. We promised, we delivered,” said European Council President Antonio Costa.

As stated by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Ukraine will receive the money in the second half of January at the latest.

(c)UNIAN 2025