Brussels, Dec. 3, 2025 (Lusa) - The Portuguese minister of foreign affairs said on Wednesday that the "correct legal way" to use frozen Russian assets is in the proposal presented today by the European Commission, acknowledging that it is "complex" and will require the full attention of member states.
"It is an issue we have been discussing for a long time [...], all member states [of the European Union (EU)] have shown a willingness for them [the frozen Russian assets] to be effectively used. The right legal form is now in this Commission proposal and deserves attention and careful study, because it is a complex proposal," Paulo Rangel told journalists.
Speaking on the sidelines of a ministerial meeting at the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in Brussels (Belgium), the Portuguese minister added that most of the 27 EU member states want this solution and assure Belgium (one of the countries with the most frozen Russian assets) that they want to "address the concerns expressed".
"There is a large majority in favour of the issue of frozen assets, because it is Russian money that could be used to anticipate reparations [to Ukraine], I would say that there is a strong preference for this solution," said the minister, warning, however, that "there are some legal obstacles".
"Most of them" have already been overcome, argued Paulo Rangel.
The European Commission today proposed a controversial reparations loan based on frozen Russian assets and a smaller loan based on the European Union (EU) budget to support Ukraine in 2026 and 2027.
With a view to "strengthening Ukraine's financial resilience in the context of Russia's ongoing war of aggression", the EU executive proposed in a statement "two solutions to meet Ukraine's financing needs for 2026-2027", namely an EU loan and a reparations loan.
This proposal faces opposition from Belgium, raising legal doubts and questions about the stability of the single currency.
While the first option would involve using the EU's budgetary headroom as collateral for Brussels to go to the markets and mobilise this amount in favour of Ukraine, the second would mean borrowing from EU financial institutions that hold frozen balances of Russian Central Bank assets.
This latter loan would be repaid by Russia after payment of reparations to Ukraine and, given the legal reservations of Belgium (where a large part of these assets are held), would be accompanied by a solidarity mechanism within the Union.
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