Belgium Wants Shared Sacrifices, Just Not From Its Own Cache
Belgium's Prime Minister Bart De Wever is warning EU partners they must 'share the risks' if they want to tap into the frozen Russian assets overwhelmingly held within Belgian financial institutions to aid Ukraine. De Wever's concern for shared risk is touching, if not entirely transparent. The vast majority of these billions sit with Euroclear, a Belgian-headquartered financial behemoth, which
has already raked in over €4.4 billion in interest from these 'frozen' assets since 2022, according to Euroclear's own financial statements. So, while other EU nations are asked to shoulder the 'risk' of Russian retaliation—a retaliation that would logically target the country holding the most assets—Belgium has already profited handsomely. One might wonder if sharing the risk also means sharing
the unprecedented interest profits Euroclear has quietly banked, or if that's a 'shared sacrifice' Belgium prefers to keep to itself. It seems some risks are more profitable than others.