Orbán calls EU vote on frozen Russian assets illegal, files formal protest

“Brussels has crossed the Rubicon today. At noon, a written vote will begin that will do irreparable damage to the Union,” Orbán wrote. “The vote concerns frozen Russian assets, which until now EU member states decided on every six months by unanimous consent. Today’s procedure scraps the unanimity requirement with the stroke of a pen — and that is clearly unlawful.”

Orbán argued that with this decision, the EU has abandoned the rule of law and that European leaders “have placed themselves above the rules.”

He accused the European Commission of “systematically violating European law instead of safeguarding the EU’s legal framework,” saying it is doing so “to prolong a war in Ukraine that is clearly unwinnable.”

“All this — in broad daylight, less than a week before the meeting of the European Council, the EU’s highest decision-making body composed of heads of state and government. This is how the rule of law in the European Union is being replaced by the rule of bureaucrats. Hungary protests this decision and will do everything it can to restore legal order,” Orbán wrote.

On Dec. 11, EU member state ambassadors agreed to amend the rules to ease the process of keeping Russian assets frozen inside the bloc.

Radio Free Europe journalist Rikard Jozwiak noted that unanimity is no longer required to extend the freeze — a major step toward issuing a reparations-based loan to Ukraine.

Also on Dec. 11, Politico reported that EU ambassadors had granted the European Commission emergency authority to keep €210 billion in Russian state assets frozen until the Kremlin pays postwar reparations to Ukraine.

The decision significantly strengthens Ukraine’s position and greatly reduces the likelihood that pro-Russian governments in Europe — particularly in Hungary and Slovakia — will be able to return the assets to Moscow.

Reparations-based loan for Ukraine: key developments

In 2024, the G7 nations agreed to use profits from Russian assets — not the assets themselves — to fund a €50 billion loan to Ukraine. In December 2024, Ukraine received its first $1 billion tranche from the United States, backed by income from frozen Russian assets.

In March 2025, Belgium’s prime minister publicly opposed confiscating Russian assets and transferring them to Ukraine. In November 2025, it emerged that Euroclear was prepared to take the EU to court if frozen Russian assets were handed over to Ukraine.

On Dec. 2, 2025, the European Central Bank refused to guarantee the reparations-based loan.

On Dec. 5, Bloomberg reported that the U.S. had tried to persuade several EU countries to block the bloc’s plan to use frozen Russian central bank assets to back the loan.

On Dec. 11, Politico reported that the EU was preparing a stern warning to Belgium in case Prime Minister Bart De Wever attempted to block the €210 billion reparations loan package.