As one of the architects of the Reparations Loan, the financing option for Ukraine based on the exploitation of the Bank of Russia’s assets immobilised in the European Union (see EUROPE B13765A1), the German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, launched a ‘campaign to convince’ by travelling to Brussels on Friday 5 December in a bid to convince his Belgian counterpart, Bart De Wever, during a dinner to be attended by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to back this...