EU leaders will have to decide how to help fill that gap at a crucial Brussels summit on December 18th. The other was to use frozen Russian central bank assets to finance a €90 billion loan. The vast majority of those Russian assets were held in Euroclear, a depository for state bonds in Belgium. The reparations loan would only need the support of a weighted majority of the 27 leaders to be approved. Locking in the sanctioned frozen assets is key to the loan getting off the ground.

Source: The Irish Times December 04, 2025 07:11 UTC