Crunch EU summit to decide on using frozen assets of Moscow for Ukraine

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

56% : Another option could have been for the EU to borrow the needed amount against the security of the EU budget and then lend the money on to Ukraine.
55% : EU leaders arriving at the summit said it was imperative they find a solution.
52% : We have to show that we are strong," EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said, adding that leaders would stay at the Brussels summit as long as needed to find a solution.
51% : Diplomats said the use of the Russian assets was therefore in practice "the only game in town." But to use it, EU leaders first need to convince Belgium, which holds 185bn euros of the total 210bn euros frozen in Europe, that they will not leave it alone with the bill if Russia successfully sues in international courts over the plan.
49% : With public finances across the EU already strained by high debt levels, the European Commission has proposed using frozen Russian central bank assets that are mostly held in a Belgian clearing house to secure a huge loan to Kyiv.
44% : Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever told his country's parliament early yesterday that he had not yet seen guarantees that answered his concerns on legal and liquidity risks and that financing plans were still changing "as we speak". Russia's central bank has said the EU plans to use its assets are illegal and reserved the right to use all available means to protect its interests.
39% : European Union leaders were trying to overcome differences on whether to use frozen Russian assets to finance Ukraine's war effort at a fraught summit yesterday seen as a critical test of the bloc's strength.
38% : The EU sees Russia's war as a threat to its own security and wants to keep Ukraine financed and fighting.
37% : Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who took part in the summit, urged EU leaders to reach a deal, saying it was the right thing to do and would allow Ukraine to keep fighting.
36% : The draft text specifies the risk would be shared among EU states, among several conditions meant to reassure Belgium and others.
34% : But such a move would require unanimity among the 27 EU countries and Moscow-friendly Hungary has already said it would veto it.
32% : The stakes are high because without the EU's financial help Ukraine will run out of money in the second quarter of next year and most likely lose the war to Russia, which the EU fears would bring closer the threat of Russian aggression against the bloc.

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