Von der Leyen seeks backing on Russian assets at the Nordic Council, where Moscow is considered a real threat’

Brussels – A 1,340-kilometer border between Finland and Russia, and the Barents Sea, the scene of massive military exercises by Moscow, make the Scandinavian countries the European front line when it comes to preparing for external threats. It is there, at the Nordic Council, that the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, seeks confirmation of the latest proposals to accelerate the continent’s rearmament and strengthen support for Ukraine. Starting with a plan to use the 180 billion of frozen Russian assets to cover Kyiv’s urgent financial needs. A plan that is proceeding slowly, and which risks making things more complicated.

Von der Leyen attended the opening day of the 77th Nordic Council, an inter-parliamentary cooperation forum bringing together Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and the three autonomous territories of Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and the Åland Islands. At the Stockholm Parliament, she met the prime ministers of the region’s countries. A region she described as “the North Star of Europe,” in terms of “readiness and preparedness across society,” and in the ability to “monitor the Arctic to the north and deter a hostile neighbor to the east.”

At the joint press conference with the Nordic Council leaders, the focus could only be on the Russian threat. “The war in Ukraine has made our region a hot spot,” stressed Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo. Helsinki, the object of Moscow’s imperialist aims for centuries, named names: “Russia is the number one threat. When the war in Ukraine ends, Russia will move its military forces across our border. It is a real threat to us,” Orpo explicitly said. 

The nuclear tests involving Russian air, naval, and ground forces a few days ago are part of “a long tradition that Norway follows very closely,” said the Norwegian premier, Jonas Gahr Støre. Norwegians, he insisted, live “100 kilometers from the world’s largest nuclear arsenal.” The Nordic Council “is not afraid, but we are prepared,” Gahr Støre concluded. 

The real debate was over the stalemate over a proposal to use Russian Central Bank assets to finance reparations loans to Ukraine to cover the conflict-ridden country’s macro-financial needs for the next two years. Despite the European Council’s failure, von der Leyen tries to see the glass half full: the leaders “committed to cover Ukraine’s financial needs for 2026-27,” she stressed. Yet the summit’s conclusions contain only a vague call to explore options, with no mention of work on Russian assets — a move particularly disliked by Belgium, which controls the vast majority of them.

On the other hand, the Arctic Council fully endorses working on reparations loans. It is “the only reasonable solution,” said Orpo. “There is no alternative,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen repeated. The European Commission will be able to count on Sweden, Finland, and Denmark when, at the forthcoming December summit, EU heads of state and government will have to make a clear statement on the legislative proposal on which the executive is working, which by then may already be behind schedule.

 Not least because none of the Northerners want to hear about the other plausible option. That of a common debt instrument. Not even wealthy Norway, which is not an EU member, seems to want to follow up on the latest idea circulating in Brussels, namely that Oslo itself would act as a guarantor for the loan to Ukraine to reassure the more skeptical.