Belgium steals income from Russian assets, - EU

EU countries are extremely disappointed with Belgium's position, which is blocking a decision on a “reparation loan” for Ukraine using frozen Russian assets. Officially, the country's government says it fears that Belgium will be to blame if the Kremlin manages to recover the assets, Politico reports.

The real reasons for Belgium's resistance are that it is holding Russian assets, wanting to continue to add taxes from them to its budget. In doing so, Belgium is violating an international commitment it made last year.

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Belgium credits taxes from these assets to its national budget — in effect, pocketing them. This refers to the 25% corporate tax levied on Russian assets frozen in the Belgian depository Euroclear.

Thus, the country is not fulfilling its obligations to Kyiv and the EU in full, as it should have done. It is potentially assumed that behind this is an attempt to appropriate at least part of the income from Russian assets.

If Belgium continues to resist the seizure of assets, EU member states will begin to directly raise the issue of the possible appropriation of income from Russian assets at meetings ahead of the European Council summit.

EU countries are interested in two things: whether Belgium is actually appropriating the proceeds and whether it is transferring these taxes on assets to Ukraine. This could potentially provoke a serious scandal.

“In light of this behavior, the question arises as to whether Belgium truly understands that the security of Europe is at stake. And given these figures, there are doubts as to whether Belgium will fulfill its promise to send its windfall tax revenues to Ukraine,” said a senior European diplomat.

In their assessments, EU diplomats rely on figures provided by independent sources, in particular the Kiel Institute. The latter estimated Belgium's transfer of Russian revenues to Ukraine and the country's financial assistance to Kyiv at €3.44 billion from February 24, 2022, to August 31, 2025. In 2024 alone, Belgium earned €1.7 billion in taxes from Russia's frozen assets.

Transparency issues have existed since 2024. Even then, allies accused Belgium of using revenues from Russian assets to finance its own budget.

In response, the Belgian government said it would transfer the proceeds from the assets to an EU and G7 financial instrument to be transferred to Ukraine. But later, the government quietly forgot about its promise, so nothing changed.

The Belgian government rejected criticism from diplomats. They claim that all taxes on Russia's frozen assets are being transferred to Ukraine. But the Belgian government stubbornly avoids giving a direct answer to the question of whether all the money has been transferred to Ukraine.

Belgium claims that since 2022, it has provided Ukraine with direct support from its national budget amounting to one billion euros.

"The Belgian government has pledged to allocate all corporate income tax revenues received from interest income on Russia's immobilized assets in Euroclear to support Ukraine... These revenues are currently estimated at approximately €1 billion in 2025. In addition, since 2022, the Belgian federal government has provided Ukraine with just under €1 billion in military and other support," said one Belgian government official.

The Belgian government is ignoring the question of why it has not fulfilled its promise to transfer tax revenues from assets to the EU and G7 financial instrument for Ukraine. Although back in 2024, the Belgian government publicly promised to do so.

“The tax revenues were already part of their internal budget, and they did not want to give them up,” another senior EU diplomat commented on the situation.

Photo: Channel 24.

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