Russia’s frozen state assets in the EU are better suited as a bargaining chip to achieve peace in Ukraine instead of financing a €165 billion reparations loan for Kyiv, according to the chief executive of Euroclear. “At this stage, it would be better to use that money for peace negotiations, rather than setting up an extremely complex and risky legal structure and then losing that leverage in the talks,” Valérie Urbain told Belgian broadcaster VRT on Friday. Urbain’s comments follow the European Commission’s proposed reparations loan on Wednesday, two weeks ahead of an EU leaders’ summit in Brussels. Ukraine’s war chest is expected to run dry in April, and leaders must decide whether to use sanctioned Kremlin cash to ensure Kyiv’s survival or support the war effort with taxpayer money. U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff suggested that the same assets instead be used for American-led reconstruction efforts once a truce has been agreed. The U.S. would take “50 percent” of the profit from this activity, according to an initial 28-point peace plan, which was heavily criticized by Europeans for favoring Moscow and subsequently replaced by a rehashed plan — which doesn’t appear to be gaining any traction with the Kremlin anyway. The Belgian government, led by Flemish nationalist Bart De Wever, fears the reparations loan could trigger Russian retaliation. De Wever is demanding that EU capitals provide financial guarantees that can pay out at a moment’s notice in case Moscow manages to claw the funds back. Euroclear, the Brussels-based depository, also has a direct stake in the negotiations as it holds the lion’s share of the frozen Russian assets. The financial risks of linking the assets to the reparations loan are too big, Urbain added. Euroclear’s possible bankruptcy from the initiative would “affect the attractiveness of the European market” and impact the global financial market. The Commission has said that the proposals address most of Belgium’s and Euroclear’s concerns. De Wever isn’t convinced. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz are meeting with the Belgian premier this evening to try bring him on board.

HOW BELGIUM BECAME RUSSIA’S MOST VALUABLE ASSET Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever is unmoved in his opposition to a raid on Moscow’s funds held in a Brussels bank for a loan to Ukraine.  By TIM ROSS, GREGORIO SORGI, HANS VON DER BURCHARD and NICHOLAS VINOCUR in Brussels Illustration by Natália Delgado/POLITICO It became clear that something had gone wrong by the time the langoustines were served for lunch.  The European Union’s leaders arrived on Oct. 23 for a summit in rain-soaked Brussels to welcome Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with a gift he sorely needed: a huge loan of some €140 billion backed by Russian assets frozen in a Belgian bank. It would be enough to keep his besieged country in the fight against Russia’s invading forces for at least the next two years.  The assorted prime ministers and presidents were so convinced by their plan for the loan that they were already arguing among themselves over how the money should be spent. France wanted Ukraine to buy weapons made in Europe. Finland, among others, argued that Zelenskyy should be free to procure whatever kit he needed from wherever he could find it.  But when the discussion broke up for lunch without agreement on raiding the Russian cash, reality dawned: Modest Belgium, a country of 12 million people, was not going to allow the so-called reparations loan to happen at all.  The fatal blow came from Bart De Wever. The bespectacled 54-year-old Belgian prime minister cuts an eccentric figure at the EU summit table, with his penchant for round-collared shirts, Roman history and witty one-liners. This time he was deadly serious, and dug in.  He told his peers that the risk of retaliation by the Russians for expropriating their sovereign assets was too great to contemplate. In the event that Moscow won a legal challenge against Belgium or Euroclear, the Brussels depository holding the assets, they would be on the hook to repay the entire amount, on their own. “That’s completely insane,” he said.  As afternoon stretched into evening, and dinner came and went, De Wever demanded the summit’s final conclusions be rewritten, repeatedly, to remove any mention of using Moscow’s assets to send cash to Kyiv.   Bart De Wever attends the European Council summit, in Brussels, Belgium, on Oct. 23, 2025. | Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu via Getty Images The Belgian blockade knocked the wind out of Ukraine’s European alliance at a critical moment. If the leaders had agreed to move ahead at speed with the loan plan at the October summit, it would have sent a powerful signal to Vladimir Putin about Ukraine’s long-term strength and Europe’s robust commitment to defend itself. Instead, Zelenskyy and Europe were weakened by the divisions when Donald Trump, still hoping for a Nobel Peace Prize, reopened his push for peace talks with Putin allies. The situation in Brussels remains stuck, even with the outcome of the almost-four-year-long war approaching a pivotal moment. Ukraine is sliding closer toward the financial precipice, Trump wants Zelenskyy to sign a lopsided deal with Putin — triggering alarm across Europe — and yet De Wever is still saying no. “The Russians must be having the best time,” said one EU official close to negotiations. The bloc’s leaders still aim to agree on a final plan for how to stop Ukraine running out of money when they meet for their next regular Brussels summit on Dec. 18.  But as the clock ticks down, one key problem remains: Can the EU’s most senior officials — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and António Costa, the president of the European Council — persuade De Wever to change his mind? So far the signs are not good. “I’m not impressed yet, let me put it that way,” De Wever said in televised remarks as the Commission released its draft legal texts on Wednesday. “We are not going to put risks involving hundreds of billions … on Belgian shoulders. Not today, not tomorrow, never.” In interviews, more than 20 officials, politicians and diplomats, many speaking privately to discuss sensitive matters, described to POLITICO how European attempts to fund the defense of Ukraine descended into disarray and paralysis, snagged on political dysfunction and personality clashes at the highest levels. The potential consequences for Europe — as Trump seeks to force a peace treaty on Ukraine — could hardly be more severe. SPOOKING THE HORSES  According to several of those close to the discussions, the reparations loan proposal started to hit trouble when tension began to build between De Wever and his neighbor, the new German chancellor, Friedrich Merz. A Flemish nationalist, De Wever came to power just this past February after months of tortuous coalition negotiations — a classic scenario in Belgian politics. Three weeks later, Germany voted in a national election to hand Merz, a center-right conservative, the leadership of Europe’s most powerful economy.  Like De Wever, Merz can be impulsive in a way that is liable to unsettle allies. “He shoots from the hip,” one Western diplomat said. On the night he won, he called on Europe to work for full “independence” from the United States and warned NATO it may soon be history.  Amid delays and continuing failure to agree on a way forward, bad-tempered briefings have been aimed at Bart De Wever, and increasingly at Ursula von der Leyen, too, in recent weeks. | Nicolas Tucat/Getty Images In September, the German chancellor stuck his neck out again. It was time, he said, for Europe to raid its bank vaults in order to exploit immobilized Russian assets to help Ukraine. With his outburst, Merz apparently spooked the Belgians, who were at the time in sensitive private talks with EU officials trying to iron out their worries. Several officials said Merz went rogue in putting the policy into the public domain so forcefully and so early — before De Wever had signed up.  Five days later, von der Leyen discussed it herself, though she was careful to try to reassure anyone who might have concerns: “There is no seizing of the assets.” Instead, she argued, the assets would just be used to provide a sort of advance payment from Moscow for war reparations it would inevitably owe. The money would only be returned to Russia in the unlikely event that the Kremlin agreed to compensate Kyiv for the destruction in Ukraine.  The idea gained rapid momentum. “It’s important to move forward in the process because it’s about making sure that there is funding to meet the budgetary and military needs for Ukraine, and it’s also a moral issue about making Russia pay for the damage that it has caused,” Jessica Rosencrantz, Sweden’s EU affairs minister, told POLITICO. “In that sense, using the frozen Russian assets is the logical and moral choice to make.” THE SPIDER’S WEB  Most of the work of a European Council summit is already done long before the bloc’s leaders arrive at the futuristic “space egg” Europa building for handshakes and photos. Ambassadors from the bloc’s 27 member countries gather to discuss what the summit will achieve — and to thrash out the precise wording of the plans — during the weeks leading up to each meeting.  Ahead of the October summit, Belgium’s ambassador to the EU, Peter Moors, had been sending signals to his colleagues that making progress on plans to use Russia’s frozen assets would be fine. The problem, according to four officials familiar with the matter, was that Moors wasn’t speaking directly to De Wever, and all the decisions about Russian assets rested with the prime minister.  While others inside the Belgian government knew that the prime minister was implacably opposed to ransacking Euroclear, one of his country’s most valuable and important financial institutions, the diplomat negotiating the summit deal a few hundred meters up the road apparently did not.  That meant nobody in the EU machinery really understood just how serious De Wever’s opposition was going to be until he arrived on summit day with steam coming out of his ears.  Moors is well respected among his peers and within the Belgian government. He is seen as effective, experienced and competent, having had a long career in diplomacy and politics. Before he took on the role of ambassador to the EU, he was known as the “spider in the web” of Belgian foreign policy.  Several officials said Friedrich Merz went rogue in putting the policy into the public domain so forcefully and so early — before Bart De Wever had signed up. | Tobias Schwartz/Getty Images The trouble, it seems, may have been political. He was the chief of staff to De Wever’s rival and predecessor as prime minister, Alexander De Croo, and comes from a party that lost power in last year’s election and now serves in opposition. It’s hardly uncommon in politics for such distinctions to affect who gets left out of the loop.  The other complicating factor was Belgium’s political dysfunction. As De Wever himself put it, he had been locked in negotiations with his compatriots trying to agree a national budget for weeks with no deal in sight.  “I’ve been negotiating for weeks to find €10 billion,” De Wever said on the way into the EU summit. A scenario in which Belgium would have to repay Russia more than 10 times that amount would therefore be unthinkable, he added.  As the summit broke up with only a vague agreement for leaders to look again at financing Ukraine, officials were left scratching their heads and wondering what had gone wrong.  AMERICA FIRST   The question of what to do with hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Russian assets locked in Western accounts had been hanging over Ukraine’s allies since the funds were sanctioned at the start of the war in February 2022. Now, though, it’s not just the Europeans who have their eyes on the cash.  The American side has quietly but firmly let Brussels know they have their own plans for the funds. When EU Sanctions Envoy David O’Sullivan traveled to Washington during the summer, U.S. officials told him bluntly they wanted to hand the assets back to Russia once a peace deal was done, according to two senior diplomats.  Trump is increasingly impatient for Kyiv and Moscow to agree to a full peace treaty. True to their word, the Americans’ original 28-point blueprint for an agreement included proposals for unfreezing the Russian assets and using them for a joint Ukraine reconstruction effort, under which the U.S. would take 50 percent of the profits.  The concept provoked outrage in European capitals, where one shocked official suggested Trump’s peace envoy Steve Witkoff should see “a psychiatrist.” If nothing else, Trump’s desire for a speedy deal with Putin — and his apparent designs for the frozen assets — lit a fire under the EU’s negotiations with De Wever.  WASTED TIME   Many EU governments are sympathetic toward the Belgian leader. Officials and politicians know just how difficult it is for any government to contemplate a step like this one, which could theoretically open them up to punishingly expensive legal action. De Wever is worried the stability of the euro itself could be undermined if a raid on Euroclear forced investors to think again about placing their assets in European banks.  In recent weeks, von der Leyen’s most senior aide, Björn Seibert, among others, invested time in trying to understand Belgium’s objections and to find creative ways to overcome them. Moors and other ambassadors have discussed the issues endlessly, during their regular meetings with each other and the Commission.  But as the nights draw in, the mood is darkening. Amid delays and continuing failure to agree on a way forward, bad-tempered briefings have been aimed at De Wever, and increasingly also at von der Leyen in recent weeks. She has held off the decisive step of publishing the draft legal texts that would enable the assets to be used for the reparations loan. These documents are what all sides need to enact, alter or reject the plan. “We have wasted a lot of time,” Jonatan Vseviov, secretary-general of the Estonian foreign ministry, told POLITICO. “Our focus has been solely on the Commission president, asking her to present the proposal. Nobody else can table the proposal.” He said it would have been “better” if the Commission had produced the legal texts setting out the details of the loan earlier than Wednesday, when they were eventually released. “We have wasted a lot of time,” Jonatan Vseviov, secretary-general of the Estonian foreign ministry, told POLITICO. | Ali Balikci/Getty Images “We all have a responsibility” to speed up now, another diplomat said, while a third noted that even Belgium had been imploring the Commission to publish the legal plans in recent weeks. An EU official said everyone should calm down and noted that De Wever still needed to get off his ledge. Another diplomat said Belgium “cannot expect all their wishes to be granted in full.” WINTER IS HERE Merz is particularly agitated. He worries that it will be his country’s taxpayers who have to step in unless the assets loan goes ahead. “I see the need to do this as increasingly urgent,” the German leader told reporters on Friday. “Ukraine needs our support. Russian attacks are intensifying. Winter is approaching — or rather, we are already in winter.” De Wever, in the words of one diplomat, is still “pleading” for other options to remain in play. Two alternative ideas are in the air. The first would ask EU national governments to dig into their own coffers to send cash grants to Kyiv, a prospect most involved think is unrealistic given the parlous state of the budgets of many European nations.  The other idea is to fund a loan to Kyiv via joint EU borrowing, something frugal countries dislike because it would pile up debt to be repaid by future generations of taxpayers. “We are not keen on that,” one diplomat said. “The principle of saying Russia needs to pay for the damage is right.”  Some combination of these ideas might be inevitable, especially if the reparations loan is not finalized in time to meet Ukraine’s funding needs. In that case, a bridging loan will be required as an emergency “plan B”.  In a letter to von der Leyen on Nov. 27, De Wever underlined his opposition, describing the reparations loan proposal as “fundamentally wrong.”  “I am fully cognizant of the need to find ways to continue financial support to Ukraine,” De Wever wrote in his letter to von der Leyen. “My point has always been that there are alternative ways to put our money where our mouth is. When we talk about having skin in the game, we have to accept that it will be our skin in the game.”  “Who would advise the prime minister to write such a letter?” one exasperated diplomat said, dismayed at De Wever’s apparent insensitivity. “He talks about having ‘skin in the game.’ What about Ukraine?” RUSSIAN DRONES  Despite frustrating his allies, De Wever still has support from within his own government for the hard-line stance he’s taking. His position has been reinforced by Euroclear itself, which issued its own warnings. In a sign of how critical the subject is for Belgium, Euroclear’s bosses deal directly with De Wever’s office, bypassing the finance ministry.  Some also fear the threat to Belgium’s physical security. Mysterious drones disrupted air traffic at Brussels Airport last month and were spotted over Belgian military bases, suspected of spying on fighter jets and ammunition stores. The concern is that they may be part of Putin’s hybrid assault on Europe, and that Belgium would be at heightened risk if De Wever approved the use of Moscow’s assets.  Another major hurdle to progress on the loan is Hungary. Russia’s assets are only frozen because all the EU’s leaders — including Putin’s friend Viktor Orbán — have agreed every six months to extend the sanctions immobilizing the funds. Should Orbán change his mind, Russia could suddenly be free to lay claim to those assets again, putting Belgium in trouble.  In the end, the task may just be too big even for the Commission’s highly qualified lawyers. It’s far from certain that a legal fix even exists that could duck Hungary’s veto and Russian retaliation, keep Belgium happy, and avoid the need for European taxpayer money to be committed up front.  Mysterious drones disrupted air traffic at Brussels Airport last month and were spotted over Belgian military bases, suspected of spying on fighter jets and ammunition stores. | Nicolas Tucat/Getty Images As the next crunch European Council summit on Dec. 18 gets closer, European officials are feeling the pressure. “This is not an accounting exercise,” Estonia’s Vseviov said. “We are preparing the most consequential of all European Councils … We are trying to ensure that Europe gets a seat at the table where history is being made.” For the EU, one essential question remains — and it’s one that is always there, in every crisis that crosses the desks of the diplomats and officials working in Brussels: Can a union of 27 diverse, fractious, complex countries, each with its own domestic struggles, political rivalries and ambitious leaders, unite to meet the moment when it truly matters?  In the words of one diplomat, “It’s anyone’s guess.” Jacopo Barigazzi, Camille Gijs, Bjarke Smith-Meyer and Hanne Cokelaere contributed to this report.

Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever on Wednesday invoked Greek mythological hero Hercules as he celebrated striking a long-awaited budget deal. “We aren’t exactly on Mount Olympus yet in this country and I’m not standing here with a divine feeling … But at least the government has the courage to climb the path of Arete,” De Wever told lawmakers in the Belgian parliament. “We did not opt for laziness, but for the Herculean task of a multi-year budget.”  According to the ancient Greek tale known as The Choice of Hercules, the young man is approached by two figures. Kakia (vice) offers him a life of ease and pleasure, while Arete (virtue) promises a more demanding path of discipline and hardship, but one that leads to true honor and lasting glory. Belgium’s contentious budget talks were deadlocked for months as coalition parties haggled over a multi-year strategy to plug a €9.2 billion budget gap by 2029. They finally struck a deal Monday on the budget and related reforms, which helped avoid a government collapse. Ditching the Greek classics, De Wever opted for a more modern metaphor as he summarized his relief at finalizing the accord: “The exercise was anything but easy. After all, the low-hanging fruit has long since been picked away.” Attention now turns to the EU effort to pressure the unwavering De Wever into unfreezing the €140 billion in Russian assets held in Belgium that the bloc wants to use to help fund Ukraine’s war effort. Call it The Odyssey.

BRUSSELS — Belgium’s coalition agreed a budget deal early Monday that will see Prime Minister Bart De Wever’s government avoid collapse. The center-right government, led by Flemish separatist De Wever, struck a multi-year deal to plug a €9.2 billion budget gap by 2029 after months of disagreement. De Wever had set a Christmas deadline after talks appeared to reach a deadlock earlier this month. “Today the labor, tomorrow the fruit,” De Wever said in a post on X, adding that the deal and other reforms would improve Belgium’s debt position by €32 billion. Belgium’s deficit has reached 5.4 percent of GDP this year, while public debt stands at 104.7 percent of GDP. Last week, the European Commission warned that, in case of unchanged policy, Belgium’s deficit could reach 5.9 percent by 2027, with only Poland performing worse in the EU. The government hiked excise duties on natural gas, while certain recreational products, such as hotel stays and takeaway food, will become more expensive. Taxes on flight tickets are also increased, from €5 to €10. There won’t be a general hike in value-added tax, however, as the Francophone liberal MR party resisted that measure. Belgium also tweaked its wage-indexing method, whereby salaries increase linked to inflation, with the changes affecting high earners. The government also committed to putting 100,000 people who are currently on sick leave back to work. It also introduced a €2 tax on packages from non-European webshops, such as Chinese e-commerce platform Shein. De Wever’s administration secured the deal at the start of a three-day general strike that is affecting public transport, public services and schools.

Police have detained eight people and raided 18 homes in Brussels and Leuven in connection with death threats against a top prosecutor known for fighting organized crime and drug trafficking. Law enforcement in Brussels received information in July about a possible plot to attack Julien Moinil, the city’s public prosecutor, as reported by Belgian news outlets. The threat level against Moinil, who took office in January and is under police protection, was raised to four, the highest category, after police learned of the alleged plans. “The main suspects have criminal records for organized drug trafficking. They are active within the Albanian criminal underworld,” said the Belgian state prosecutor’s department on Tuesday. It remains unclear whether the suspects actually planned an attack on Moinil. Brussels has struggled with drug-related crime and violence for the last several years, with dozens of shootings. By the end of October, 78 shootings had been recorded in 2025. Amid a particularly violent week in August, Moinil lambasted politicians for their lenient stance on gun violence, warning that “anyone in Brussels can be hit a by a stray bullet.” In 2024, 92 shootings claimed the lives of nine people, according to official figures. In September, Belgian Security and Home Affairs Minister Bernard Quintin sparked debate when he suggested soldiers could be deployed on the streets of Brussels for their “shock effect” alongside police. In a recent anonymous open letter, a judge in Antwerp said drug trafficking is turning Belgium into a “narco-state” and that “extensive mafia-like structures have taken root.” The alleged plot against Moinil raises questions about the safety of other officials involved in combating drug violence. “This investigation once again shows the absolute necessity to better protect police officers and magistrates who fight tirelessly every day against organized crime and who, as a result, are targeted by these organizations,” Federal Prosecutor Ann Fransen told Belgian media on Tuesday.

Donald Trump may sometimes think of himself as the “president of Europe” due to his huge influence over policy in Brussels, but even he wouldn’t have expected to see himself appear on ballots in the city. But a far-right Belgian francophone party, which is named after the U.S. president via a roundabout acronym, was recently launched by a former chairman of the Belgian National Front, local outlet BRUZZ reported Monday.  “Donald Trump is the ultimate symbol of populism. He immediately embodies what we stand for,” Salvatore Nicotra, TRUMP’s founder, told the website. TRUMP — which stands for “Tous Réunis pour l’Union des Mouvements Populistes” (All United for the Union of Populist Movements) — is a successor to far-right Wallonian parties Chez Nous and the Belgian National Front (NF). Unlike Flanders’ Vlaams Belang, Belgium’s largest far-right party, TRUMP does not advocate separatism, Nicotra noted, and aims to run both at the federal level and in the 2029 European Parliament election. “We are a right-wing populist party with a social slant,” he said. Nicotra, who served as a municipal councilor in the Saint-Gilles district of Brussels from 1994 to 2000, has not ruled out running in the Belgian capital or in municipal elections as well. Other founders, all former members of the NF, include Emanuele Licari, a former Vlaams Belang member who was dropped from its list after the party said he had been openly glorifying fascism. The party’s official launch event will take place on Nov. 30.

Unidentified drones affected Belgian airports from Thursday evening into Friday morning, amid an escalating crisis in the European skies. Liège Airport briefly suspended air traffic twice, around 10 p.m. on Thursday night and again Friday morning around 6 a.m., each time for about an hour, according to public broadcaster VRT. The airport handles mainly cargo, with only a few passenger flights each day. Brussels airport also had to divert one flight to Amsterdam Thursday night after a drone was detected nearby. Air traffic at Brussels Airport was disrupted by more drone sightings on Tuesday evening. As the continent’s issues become more widespread — and some European governments have pointed the finger of blame at Russia — drones were also spotted over Antwerp’s port area on Thursday night. For consecutive nights on Tuesday and Wednesday, drones were also observed above the Royal School for Non-Commissioned Officers in the Flemish city of Sint-Truiden. Belgium held a National Security Council meeting Thursday, after which Interior Minister Bernard Quintin said that authorities had the situation “under control.” Defense Minister Theo Francken vowed to strengthen Belgium’s National Air Security Center (NASC). “The NASC in Bevekom must be fully operational by January 1,” he wrote in a social media post. “This center will ensure better monitoring and protection of Belgian airspace and prepare Belgium for future challenges in air security,” he added.

BRUSSELS — Prime Minister Bart De Wever on Thursday told the Belgian parliament that he asked King Philippe to give the government until Christmas to hash out a budget deal. Government parties have been locked in tense talks in an attempt to nail down the country’s budget and make good on the coalition’s promise to cut €10 billion in spending.  This story is being updated.

ANTWERP — Prime Minister Bart De Wever needs to get serious about the fraying rule of law in Belgium, a top judge said Tuesday. Bart Willocx, whose role is first president of the Antwerp Court of Appeal, told POLITICO in an interview that the Belgian justice system must be funded properly — after “decades” of under-financing — to fight a rising tide of drug-fueled violence and corruption. “Help us to secure the functioning of justice … We need budget, otherwise there are problems for normal citizens and functioning and it won’t end in a good way,” Willocx said, when asked what message he had for the Belgian government, which is currently locked in intractable budget talks. Willocx said that the rule of law in Belgium, like elsewhere in Europe and the U.S., is under pressure. “A very simple way to suppress the courts is when you don’t give them enough budget, because then they are not working well, they can’t do what they should do,” he said. His blunt intervention comes the day after another Antwerp judge published an anonymous letter decrying that Belgium was on the verge of becoming a “narco-state.” De Wever, prime minister since February this year, spent more than a decade as mayor of Antwerp demanding more federal money to address narcotics-related issues, but Willocx notes action hasn’t been forthcoming since he ascended to the Belgian premiership. “He was the mayor and now he is the prime minister. I’m sure that safety and security and these kind of things are very important to him, but we ask his government to invest more, to stop this,” said Willocx. “As a mayor he said we need money from the federal government, but now he is the prime minister … We are waiting and he refers to the minister of justice, and the minister of justice refers to the government, but we are waiting for more support,” he added, exasperatedly. De Wever’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the judge’s criticism. The massive Port of Antwerp acts as a gateway for illegal narcotics — particularly cocaine coming from Latin America — to enter Europe, and turf wars have spilled onto streets across Belgium, with shootings and bombings taking place both in Antwerp and Brussels. Complicating the quest to solve the problem, De Wever is embroiled in tense negotiations with coalition partners to hammer out a new budget to balance Belgium’s strained finances. He has given the parties until Nov. 6 to resolve the budget crisis and threatened to quit if there is no agreement. Belgium is one of four eurozone countries that failed to deliver its draft budget by the European Commission’s Oct. 15 deadline. In Willocx’s opinion, gangs have been successful in corrupting officials like port workers, police and customs agents, and in order to tackle the society-wide problem, money must be invested in overcrowded prisons and social rehabilitation. Employees of the courts and the public prosecution service have been leading a campaign to highlight the issues for months now, and recently published a list of 100 proposals to be addressed. “We have a certain power and responsibility and we want to do it in a way that is serving our society and in this moment we see important risks. If this doesn’t change, we won’t be able to do what we should do,” Willocx warned. “We don’t do this only for ourselves. When you become a magistrate, it’s not to become rich or get power, but to push things in a better direction. We want to secure normal citizens so they are not afraid,” Willocx said.

Listen on * Spotify * Apple Music * Amazon Music Beim EU-Gipfel trifft Friedrich Merz auf die Realität europäischer Politik und auf die Blockade des belgischen Premiers Bart De Wever. Der Streit um die Nutzung eingefrorener russischer Staatsvermögen für einen 140-Milliarden-Euro-Kredit an die Ukraine bringt die Verhandlungen ins Wanken. Hans von der Burchard berichtet über Druck, Deals und womögliche diplomatische Nachtschichten. Das Berlin Playbook als Podcast gibt es jeden Morgen ab 5 Uhr. Gordon Repinski und das POLITICO-Team liefern Politik zum Hören – kompakt, international, hintergründig. Für alle Hauptstadt-Profis: Der Berlin Playbook-Newsletter bietet jeden Morgen die wichtigsten Themen und Einordnungen. Jetzt kostenlos abonnieren. Mehr von Host und POLITICO Executive Editor Gordon Repinski: Instagram: @gordon.repinski | X: @GordonRepinski.