The European Commission offered major guarantees for its €140 billion loan to Ukraine in a bid to reassure Belgium that it would not be left alone to face any legal or financial blowback from using Russian assets held on Belgian soil. 

In a memo attached to a letter to EU capitals on Monday morning, obtained by POLITICO, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that EU countries are ready to shoulder the risks of Russian retaliation for the years to come.

In a further concession to Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever, the Commission said that EU countries will cover the risks “also after the immobilisation of assets has been lifted.”

Belgium fears that using the assets would leave it exposed to Russian legal action at home and abroad, as the sanctioned cash is held in the Brussels-based financial depository Euroclear. De Wever is demanding financial guarantees from the rest of the bloc to protect itself against the Kremlin’s lawyers, who could convince a court of law to send the money back to Moscow.

This is a major concern for Belgium, which has a bilateral investment treaty with Russia, first signed in 1989.

“The guarantees would also relate to risks stemming from bilateral investment treaties that are linked to the immobilisation of the Russian sovereign assets,” von der Leyen wrote.

The memo includes two other financing options to consider if the Russian assets are not used to fund the loan. Both would see the EU pay out of its own pocket to prop up Ukraine.

Von der Leyen’s letter comes after she met De Wever on Friday, following weeks of talks between the two sides over using the Russian assets.