Seize Russia’s frozen €210bn for Ukraine now, while EU unity lasts

European leaders need no encouragement to enjoy the summer sun. They should make the most of favourable political weather too.

Since Viktor Orbán’s departure from power in Budapest, and before the next French president takes office next May, a rare period of consensus about support for Ukraine reigns in Europe.

The first agenda item when the suntanned bigwigs return in September should be seizing Russia’s central bank assets: around €210bn, frozen since 2022, mostly held by the Belgian company Euroclear.

A European Union plan to seize this money and use it for Ukraine was derailed by Russian death-threats against Belgian decision-makers and other more conventional (legal) forms of intimidation.

Belgium’s prime minister Bart De Wever said last yea r he would gladly get rid of the money to anyone prepared to indemnify Belgium; in a nod to the risks involved, he said he would add some bodyguards and an armoured car free of charge.

The answer is for the EU itself to take custody of the frozen accounts.

Russia can credibly intimidate individual Belgians. It is less likely to make EU commissioners and senior officials fear for their lives.

The EU would provide an indemnity to cover any residual risk faced by Belgium and by Euroclear, which holds €185bn.

All other Russian frozen sovereign accounts in the EU (which make up the €210bn total) would also be transferred to EU custody under the same scheme.

Once in EU hands, the money need not be confiscated immediately (though I would support that approach).

Edward Lucas is a former senior editor at The Economist, founder and director of the Baltic International Security Centre think-tank, and a regular writer on defence, security and espionage for The Times and Foreign Policy. He is the author of The New Cold War (2008) and Deception (2011).