An agreement that strengthens EU support in Ukraine
It is often difficult to gauge the importance of the agreements reached at marathon EU summits, and a bit of perspective is needed. Early this morning, Belgium's refusal to accept the use of Russian funds frozen in Europe to help Ukraine forced the other member states to find an alternative to secure financial support in Kiiv to sustain the war against Russia, and this came via so-called Eurobonds. This route guarantees the same amount of money that was intended for Ukraine, some 90 billion euros, through the issuance of joint EU debt, a taboo that was already broken during the pandemic. In reality, it is a much more legally secure route, since the seizure of Russian assets by invoking Article 20 on enhanced cooperation of the Treaties is a formula that raises many legal questions, so much so that the Belgian government, the country where it is estimated that 85% of these funds are located, has flatly refused for fear of violating international law.
The fact that this was the plan of Germany, always reluctant to embrace Eurobonds, and of the Commission, may have provoked a certain sense of failure, but if the outcome of the summit is analyzed objectively, it is very satisfactory considering the difficulties of getting all the partners to agree on such a delicate matter. At the end of the day, thanks to the Plan B pushed by France and Italy, Ukraine will have the money it needs, and won't have to pay it back until Russia pays war reparations. Meanwhile, Russian assets will remain frozen in Europe while the EU looks for ways to access them. Vladimir Putin, particularly cocky these days, has no reason to be happy.
However, this doesn't mean the EU shouldn't make these kinds of decisions with the enemy within. Hungary, Slovakia, and now the Czech Republic as well, will not participate in the issuance of Eurobonds given their well-known pro-Putin stance. The EU must find a way to use the Russian assets it holds on its territory to its own advantage, to avoid further burdening the European taxpayer, but above all, to send a clear message to Moscow that, sooner or later, it will have to pay a very high price for invading a potential EU partner. In a world dominated by testosterone-fueled leaders like Putin and Donald Trump, Europe must use its weapons, the main one being its financial strength.
Eurobonds are essentially what the United States, China, and Russia already have: a single, mutualized debt that allows for the rapid mobilization of significant resources by accessing international markets. This lever must be used now to help Ukraine, but perhaps in the future it will also be necessary to strengthen European defense. The main lesson of the summit is that the EU faces an existential dilemma that can be summarized in this formula: either greater political and economic integration or disappearance by becoming irrelevant.
