MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
European Union leaders meet in Brussels Thursday for what is widely being portrayed as their most important summit in recent memory. They are expected to decide whether to use frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine pay its bills. As Teri Schultz reports, the debate remains deadlocked just hours before the meeting starts.
TERI SCHULTZ, BYLINE: It's being called a make-or-break moment for the credibility of the European Union. Will EU leaders make Russia pay for the destruction it's causing in Ukraine? We're about to find out, as attendees are warned to prepare for a possibly extended visit to Brussels.
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KAJA KALLAS: We will not leave the meeting before we get a result, before we get the decision on the funding for Ukraine.
SCHULTZ: EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, is a huge proponent of the summit's centerpiece, a reparations loan that would use more than a hundred billion dollars' worth of frozen Russian central bank funds as collateral for a loan to cash-strapped Ukraine. The hypothesis is that the debt would be repaid by Kyiv when Moscow pays compensation in a peace deal.
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KALLAS: I want to make this very simple. Supporting Ukraine costs money. That is very clear. But letting Ukraine fall would cost us much more.
SCHULTZ: Not everyone shares her logic. Governments like Hungary and Slovakia regularly refuse to support Ukraine. But in this case, the biggest holdout is Belgium, where almost nine-tenths of Russian accounts immobilized in the EU are held in a previously obscure institution called Euroclear, now the site of protests by pro-Ukraine activists, with props depicting bloodstained cash.
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UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Chanting) Euroclear, release the funds.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Euroclear, release the funds.
SCHULTZ: Even though the money would not technically be confiscated, Belgium Prime Minister Bart De Wever argues the trustworthiness of his country's financial institutions would be irreparably damaged, and he fears that if Russia gets an international legal judgment ordering the money returned, the bill would go to Belgium. Among his preconditions for releasing the assets, De Wever demands legally binding pledges from other EU governments to cover proportional shares of the sum, should it need to be paid back. That hasn't happened, despite vocal support for the plan from most of the other 26 leaders. De Wever denies accusations his position caters to the Kremlin. His blockade has the full backing of the Belgian Parliament.
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BART DE WEVER: (Through interpreter) We stand loyal behind Ukraine. We will always choose peace, freedom and democracy. And we are ready to make sacrifices for this. But we must not be asked for the impossible.
SCHULTZ: But Aaron Burnett with the Berlin-based European Resilience Initiative Center says Moscow's options for getting the money back are practically nonexistent, as long as its invasion continues. He says the Kremlin can't simultaneously violate international law and call for its enforcement. Burnett thinks approving this plan, versus borrowing more money to help Ukraine, should be a no-brainer.
AARON BURNETT: If they don't agree a plan, then essentially, they're telegraphing the message that Russian state money, the state money of the aggressor, enjoys far more protections from us than the money of our own taxpayers.
SCHULTZ: But as decision time approaches, more countries are opposing the plan. Leonid Litra from the European Council on Foreign Relations says that's at least partly due to Washington working against it.
LEONID LITRA: Their messaging has been, we are very close to a peace deal. If you do this, this is going to spoil all of our efforts. Don't do it. My expectation now is that the chances of the repression credit are 50/50, given the U.S. pressure on some European states.
SCHULTZ: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the loan would be a game changer for his country. He's just decided to attend the summit in person. For NPR News, I'm Teri Schultz in Brussels.
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