EU Approves €90 Billion Loan for Ukraine After Frozen Assets Plan Stalls | OilPrice.com

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

56% : Instead, agreement was found for the loan, which will be based on borrowing on the capital markets backed by "EU budget headroom," a term used to describe extra borrowing capacity.
54% : Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attended the summit, telling leaders the proposal of a loan backed by the frozen Russia assets currently held in the EU is preferable, but that ultimately it doesn't matter how the funds are utilized, just as long as a solution is found.
54% : Some 140 billion euros ($165 billion) of Russian state assets are held in the Belgian-based financial markets company Euroclear, while an additional 25 billion euros of Russian state assets are held in banks across the EU, mainly in France but also in a Belgian private bank, Cyprus, and Germany.
52% : EU officials began meeting on December 18 to agree on a solution for funding.
52% : The United States has signaled that it most likely won't send more cash, putting the onus on the EU and other G7 countries to step up -- and to do so soon.
50% : But legal concerns kept some EU members from signing on to the proposal.
47% : The European Union will provide a 90 billion-euro ($106 billion) interest-free loan to Kyiv to help fund the war-torn country after failing to agree on a proposal to use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine's economic and military needs in the coming years.
47% : "After lengthy discussions, it is clear that the reparations loans will require more work as leaders need more time to go through the details," one EU official told RFE/RL. Funding for Ukraine has become a major issue for the 27-member bloc, with the United States choking off its financial support while countries such as Hungary push for curbs on funding as well.
40% : EU leaders warned that failure to act would damage Europe's credibility, while Ukraine cautioned that delays would sharply reduce drone production and defense capacity.
39% : While most of the EU's 27 members are in favor of using the assets to back the loan, Belgium fears the plan could leave it legally vulnerable, and other countries including Italy have also expressed doubts.
38% : " The EU summit came after Russian President Vladimir Putin crudely criticized the bloc's leaders, using a word that can be translated as "young swine," and reiterated assertions that Moscow will achieve the goals of its war on Ukraine by force if a US push for peace does not produce a deal that meets its demands.
37% : German Chancellor Friedrich Merz issued a stark warning earlier this week, saying failure would mean "the European Union's ability to act will be severely damaged for years, if not longer, and we will show the world that we are incapable of standing together and acting at such a crucial moment in our history.

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