EU leaders at the European Council summit that closed on 16 October rejected a US proposal to hand the roughly €200bn of frozen Russian assets held in Europe to Washington1. US officials floated the idea at a meeting with European counterparts on 9 October, presenting the money as a bargaining chip in US talks with Moscow. The New York Times reported it a day later.
Germany's chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said: "The assets are frozen in Europe, and they shall remain frozen in Europe." Finland's prime minister, Petteri Orpo, said: "It cannot be viewed positively in any way. Absolutely not." Austria's chancellor, Christian Stocker, said he was not convinced, given how fast US policy changes, and Kaja Kallas, the EU's foreign policy chief, said "it is up to Europeans to decide"2.
Europe kept the assets but not a plan to pay for Ukraine. Draft conclusions updated on 14 October say leaders "will revert to the issue in a timely manner"3. Kyiv told allies in August that it faced a $27bn gap for this year, and EU payments so far have come from borrowed money rather than the assets.
On 13 October, at the fourth Ukraine-EU intergovernmental conference in Luxembourg, the EU opened two clusters of accession talks with Ukraine, covering the internal market and competitiveness and growth45. The talks formally began in June; a candidate works through six such clusters of negotiating chapters to join. Moldova opened the same two clusters alongside Ukraine6. Hungary lifted its objection after the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, passed Law No. 16119 on 12 October, which widens schooling in minority languages that are official EU languages, Hungarian among them7.
