The Foreign Minister admitted on Wednesday that he has not yet had time to review the European Commission’s proposal to use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine. However, Paulo Rangel noted that this solution is the most consensual within both the European Union (EU) and NATO.
“It is very clear that there is a large majority in favor regarding the issue of immobilized Russian assets, because it is Russian money that could potentially be used to anticipate reparations,” Rangel told journalists after a ministerial meeting in Brussels, Belgium.
The Portuguese minister stated that this issue has been under discussion “for a long time” at the European level, but until now it had not been possible to address the concrete consequences because “the EC had not yet presented a structured proposal.”
“There is finally a complete and structured proposal in which we can know what the consequences are: if this has implications for the states, if in the future there is enforcement, whether we will have to respond, whether this implies something going to deficit, or whether it counts for the deficit if it doesn’t count,” he enumerated, emphasizing that it is a “very complex” issue in legal terms.
Paulo Rangel confessed that “at this moment we are already in a position to know” all these details, but he himself does not yet know “what the solution engineered by the EU is,” as he had been in a meeting.
Portugal is “open to both solutions” presented by the EC
On Wednesday, the EC announced two possible solutions to support Ukraine in 2026 and 2027: one involves the use of frozen Russian assets and the other the use of the EU’s budgetary margins for this purpose.
“Portugal is fully open to the two solutions on the table, but each of them has specificities and impacts on national states,” Paulo Rangel stated.
In the first case, it concerns a credit based on Russian assets immobilized in the EU due to European sanctions applied to Moscow for the invasion of Ukraine, amounting to 210 billion euros. In the second, the EU proposes making a smaller loan corresponding to the remaining borrowing capacity in the current long-term European budget.
The institution is ready for “rapid progress” in discussions with European co-legislators (countries and MEPs) on the proposals made today, with EU leaders, meeting at a European Council in Brussels in two weeks, tasked with “seeking to reach a clear compromise on the way forward.”
A qualified majority is required to approve the use of Russian assets, and unanimity is needed for using the budgetary margins.
The issue, as Paulo Rangel mentioned, has been discussed for some time, but Belgium, which holds most of the frozen Russian assets, does not wish to move forward without clear guarantees and commitments from other member states to protect itself legally: if Russia does not pay reparations, the country risks being left without funds.
Regarding these concerns, the EC President assured on Wednesday that “Belgium’s concerns” have been attentively considered and almost all were taken into account in the “proposal made today on the reparations loan.”
“We have very strong safeguards in place to protect member states and reduce risks as much as possible,” said Ursula von der Leyen at a press conference in Brussels.
At the same time, “we have created a very strong solidarity mechanism through which, ultimately, the Union can intervene to guarantee to all our member states, but specifically also to Belgium, that… we will share the burden fairly, as is customary in Europe,” emphasized the leader of the community executive.
The European Commission today proposed a controversial reparations loan based on frozen Russian assets and a smaller credit based on the European Union (EU) budget, to support Ukraine in 2026 and 2027.
Lusa | 12:59 – 03/12/2025
