Seven EU leaders urge action on Ukraine reparations loan proposal

EU Leaders Advocate for Ukraine Reparations Loan Proposal

BRUSSELS, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Leaders from seven EU member states urged the EU on Monday to move ahead quickly with a proposal to use frozen Russian assets to provide financing to Ukraine.

"Supporting Ukraine in their fight for freedom and independence is not only a moral obligation – it is also in our own self-interest," the leaders from Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden said in a letter to EU Council President Antonio Costa and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

"We must therefore move ahead quickly on the Commission's proposals to use the cash balances from Russia's immobilized assets for a reparations loan to Ukraine."

Legal concerns by Belgium have delayed a decision on the European Commission's proposal for an unprecedented use of frozen Russian assets or international borrowing to raise 90 billion euros ($105 billion) for Ukraine.

"Discussions will continue up until the European Council next week, where the aim is to have a final decision," Commission spokesperson Paula Pinho said on Monday.

Pinho declined to give details about a meeting European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever had on Friday to discuss the concerns.

She repeated the Commission's stance that the proposals are in line with international law and address the concerns raised about the use of immobilized assets.

"Whenever we put our legal proposal on the table, we are sure that it is court-proof and it meets the requirements and concerns, including in this case financial markets," she told reporters in Brussels.

"So we are reassuring on that front, because obviously these issues have been looked into."

($1 = 0.8584 euros)

(Reporting by Bart Meijer, Sudip Kar-Gupta and Jan Strupczewski, Editing by Inti Landauro and Frances Kerry)