EU Scrambles After Belgian Veto of €140 B Russian-Asset Loan for Ukraine

Great-power wars have repeatedly rearranged who pays whose bills: after 1871 France’s indemnity to Germany rewired European finance, while the 1948 Marshall Plan entrenched US dollar dominance. Brussels’ current dilemma sits at a similar hinge—whether the EU evolves into a de-facto fiscal union willing to mutualise wartime risk, or retreats to loose confederation norms. Weaponising sovereign reserves also echoes America’s 1979 seizure of Iranian assets; that move still drives many states to diversify away from the dollar. If Europe now taps or even just pledges Russian funds, the euro’s desirability as a reserve currency could erode, yet failing to bankroll Kyiv could hasten a Russian victory and upend Europe’s security architecture. A century from now, historians may judge this winter’s decision less by its legal finesse than by whether it signaled Europe’s capacity—or incapacity—to act collectively under pressure.