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Belgium’s prime minister, Bart De Wever, has been criticised for calling for the normalisation of relations with Russia to re-establish cheap energy supplies.
The Flemish nationalist leader’s judgment was questioned in Belgium and beyond after he said on Saturday that the EU needed to make a deal with Russia. “We are losing on all fronts, we must end the conflict in Europe’s interest,” he told the Belgian newspaper L’Echo.
De Wever said Europe had to rearm “and at the same time we must normalise relations with Russia and regain access to cheap energy. It is common sense. In private European leaders tell me I am right, but no one dares say it out loud.”
Bringing Russia to its knees would only be possible with “100% support from the United States,” he said, adding that Washington was sometimes closer to Vladimir Putin than Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Belgium’s foreign minister, Maxime Prévot, quickly distanced himself. “Russia refuses to allow European participation at the negotiating table. It is sticking to maximalist demands,” he said.
“As long as this lasts, speaking of normalisation will be perceived as a sign of weakness that will sap European unity, which we need more than ever.”
Prévot, from a centrist party that is part of De Wever’s coalition, said easing pressure would be “giving Putin exactly what he wants.”
Asked about De Wever’s comments on Monday, Lithuania’s foreign minister, Kęstutis Budrys, recalled the demands Russia had laid down in 2021 shortly before its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
They included Nato removing any troops or weapons deployed to countries that entered the alliance after 1997, effectively meaning much of eastern Europe, including Poland, the Baltic states and Balkan countries.
Budrys said: “We know their demands coming back from ‘21. And that will be not only related to Ukraine, that will be related also to us and to the deployment of the forces and many other things. So we have to collect our strength.”
He said he expected a positive result from talks with Russia when Europe had “the sticks in the hands”, citing the use of Russian frozen assets, which are largely held in Belgium.
It is not the first time De Wever has set himself at odds with the EU mainstream. He was instrumental in blocking the EU’s use of Russia’s frozen assets to aid Ukraine, arguing that Belgium could be on the hook to repay the cash in the event of any legal action.
EU leaders agreed instead to take out a €90bn (£78bn) loan to fund Ukraine’s war effort and public finances, but Hungary is holding the plan up.
De Wever’s preference for a return to cheap Russian energy is also at odds with EU plans. The bloc agreed in December to phase out all Russian gas by November 2027 and reiterated a target to end Russian oil imports by the end of the same year.
The EU energy commissioner, Dan Jørgensen, told reporters on Monday that it was important to stick to those goals. “We have been for too long dependent on energy from Russia, making it possible for Putin to blackmail us with energy, making it possible for Putin to weaponise energy against us,” he said.
He said it would be “a mistake for us to repeat what we did in the past”.
