EU Shelves Russian-Asset Scheme, Opts for €90 B Budget-Backed Loan to Ukraine

Great powers have tried to turn adversaries’ money into leverage before—the Allies seizing German overseas assets for Versailles reparations in 1919, or Washington freezing $12 bn of Iranian funds after 1979 (a dispute settled only in 2016). Each episode bred new financial plumbing and, over decades, wariness toward the dominant currencies involved. Brussels’ clash reprises that pattern: the euro is now being tested as a safe reserve while the Union again inches toward mutualised debt, echoing the crisis-era 2010-12 Eurobond debates. The split between Belgium and Germany signals that fiscal and legal risk-sharing inside the EU remains highly conditional, limiting Europe’s ability to weaponise finance compared with the United States. Whether the bloc ultimately taps Russian principal or not, this moment will be cited in future textbooks as the point when the sanctity of sovereign reserves—and the EU’s own unity—became negotiable. Over a century horizon, the episode may matter less for Ukraine’s balance sheet than for accelerating the gradual fragmentation of the dollar-euro financial order and prompting new forums, perhaps BRICS-style, to insulate reserves from Western jurisdiction.