Europe’s strategy for convincing the Belgians to support its plan to fund Ukraine? Warn them they could be treated like Hungary.

Axar.az informs, citing Politico, at their summit on Dec. 18, EU leaders’ key task will be to win over Bart De Wever, the bloc's latest bête noire. Belgium's prime minister is vetoing their efforts to pull together a €210 billion loan to Ukraine as it faces a huge financial black hole and as the war with Russian grinds on. De Wever has dug his heels in for so long over the plan to fund the loan using frozen Russian assets ― which just happen to be mostly housed in Belgium ― that diplomats from across the bloc are now working on strategies to get him on board.

De Wever is holding out over fears Belgium will be on the hook should the money need to be paid back, and has now asked for more safety nets. Nearly all the Russian assets are housed in Euroclear, a financial depository in Brussels.