Belgian Prime Minister de Croo and the transfer of 235 million euros of interest on frozen Russian assets to Ukraine
Yesterday Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo announced that he will be sending the interest earned on frozen Russian assets presently under his country’s control to Ukraine as an assistance package.
To be sure, this is not yet transfer of the 58 billion euros of Russian assets frozen by Belgium, the largest sum among all the 27 EU Member States. Until now we have heard from EU authorities that confiscation of frozen assets is not supported by EU or international law and is very problematic. What happens to interest earned on the frozen assets remains an open question.
However, I do wonder if the Prime Minister has paid due attention to Russian state policy on such matters which is crystal clear: confiscations will be met by a mirror image response, meaning the freezing of all assets in Russia of the country perpetrating this atrocity. I wonder if he has consulted with Solvay, with Glaverbel and with the many other Belgian companies that have invested a fortune in industrial capacity and logistics infrastructure in Russia.
I wonder if he has spoken to the leadership of the diamond bourse in Antwerp whose existence depends on continued supply of Russian raw diamonds. De Croo is aware of that sensitive point since he strongly defended the interests of the diamond cutters when he successfully removed a ban on diamond imports from Russia in one of the latest rounds of EU sanctions. What no one considered at the time was that Russia might have its own reasons for refusing to make further sales to Belgium as punishment for actions such as the transfer of its wealth to Ukraine. The mayor of Antwerp and leader of the Opposition N-VA party, Mr. Bart De Wever, may have a thing or two to say about this coming catastrophe for a key local industry.
In a month’s time I expect to participate in the St Petersburg International Economic Forum where there will surely be a delegation of Belgian industrialists. I will be very interested to hear their views on this latest project of their Prime Minister which pitches to European values at the expense of his nation’s own economic survival.
©Gilbert Doctorow, 2023