EU agrees to €90B Ukraine loan, but plan to use Russian assets fails
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European leaders have failed to agree on using frozen Russian state assets to finance support for Ukraine, following a 16-hour summit in Brussels that ended without consensus on the issue.
The outcome represents a setback for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who had pushed strongly for tapping up to €210 billion in Russian assets. Opposition, led by Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever, again blocked the plan, arguing that rational and legally sound solutions should prevail over politically emotive ones.
Instead, EU leaders agreed on an emergency fallback option to jointly borrow €90 billion to fund a two-year loan to Ukraine, backed by the EU budget. The deal is intended to prevent a looming cash crunch for Ukraine as the war with Russia drags into its fourth year. However, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic opted out, highlighting ongoing fractures within the bloc.
While the agreement allows leaders to claim continued support for Ukraine, it was not the preferred outcome for Germany and several northern states traditionally opposed to joint EU borrowing. Ultimately, urgency over Ukraine’s financial needs and the desire to project unity amid uncertainty over US support prevailed.
As a concession to Berlin, leaders agreed in principle that frozen Russian assets could potentially be used in the future to repay the loan, though details remain unresolved.
