00:00EU leaders failed to agree to utilize frozen Russian state assets as part of a reparations loan for Ukraine.
00:07At an EU summit in Brussels, 24 member states agreed to common borrowing of up to 90 billion euros
00:13to ensure Ukraine is funded through next year and 2027.
00:18The vast majority of the Russian state assets are held in Euroclear financial repository in Belgium.
00:23The Belgian Prime Minister Bart Deweyver insisted on unlimited guarantees in case of any successful legal action by Russia,
00:31something EU leaders could not agree to.
00:34As reported exclusively by Euronews, three countries, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic,
00:40refused to participate in the support for Ukraine.
00:44Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said there are forces in the EU as well as outside the EU that are trying to divide Europe.
00:51Ensuring another country 90 billion euros for the next two years, I don't think it has ever been seen before in our history.
00:59So it's quite something to achieve.
01:03And as you know, I mean, there are a lot of people outside the European Union
01:07and unfortunately also inside the European Union who tries to divide us.
01:12The EU insists it succeeded by permanently immobilizing 210 billion euros of Russian state assets.
01:19Meanwhile, a much-anticipated vote of the Mercosur-Latin American trade deal was also delayed at the summit.
01:26Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Malone said she needed three more weeks to communicate new safeguard mechanisms
01:32designed to protect the agricultural sector.
01:35EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says the deal will be done eventually.
01:39I'm confident that we have the sufficient majority.
01:44There is still, as I said, work to do with member states.
01:47Therefore, we needed a slight postponement.
01:51But, I mean, my friend Antonio Costa has said it already.
01:54After 26 years of negotiations, a delay of three weeks, I think, is tolerable.
02:00It's amazing that we are moving towards the conclusion of this so important trade agreement.
02:09And I'm very confident that we'll bring it home.
02:12In a week where Europe declared it would take matters into its own hands
02:16when it came to forcing Russia to pay for the war it's waging in Ukraine,
02:20the EU balked at the last minute.
02:23EU leaders can at least point to the fact that Ukraine will be funded for the next two years.
02:27But at what cost to Europe's credibility?
02:30Shona Murray, Euronews, Brussels.
Comentarios