BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders are about to attempt something they’ve never tried before. The chances of failure are significant. Their actions this week could set dangerous precedents and a wrong move could undermine trust among the bloc's 27 member countries for years to come.
At a summit starting on Thursday, many of the leaders will press for tens of billions of euros in frozen Russian assets held in Europe to be used to meet Ukraine’s economic and military needs for the next two years.
Ukraine is on the verge of bankruptcy. The International Monetary Fund estimates that it will require a total of 137 billion euros ($160 billion) in 2026 and 2027. It must get the money by spring. The EU has pledged to come up with the funds, one way or another.
“One thing is very, very clear," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told EU lawmakers on Wednesday. "We have to take the decision to fund Ukraine for the next two years in this European Council.”
European Council President António Costa, who will chair the summit, has vowed to keep the leaders negotiating until an agreement is reached, even if it takes days.
The European Commission has proposed that the leaders use some of the frozen assets — totaling 210 billion euros ($246 billion) — to underwrite a 90 billion-euro ($105 billion) “reparations loan” to Ukraine. The U.K., Canada and Norway would fill the gap.
The plan is contentious. The European Commission insists that its reasoning and legal basis are sound. But the European Central Bank has warned that international trust in the euro single currency could be damaged, if the leaders are suspected of seizing the assets.
Most of the frozen assets belong to the Russian Central Bank and are held in the financial clearing house Euroclear, which is based in Brussels. Belgium fears Russian reprisals, through the courts or in other more nefarious ways.
Euroclear fears for its reputation. It believes the commission’s idea is legally shaky and that international investors might look elsewhere, if it transfers the Russian assets to an EU debt instrument, as von der Leyen's plan demands.
Last week, the Russian Central Bank announced that it's suing Euroclear in a Moscow court. The chances that the case will succeed appear limited, but the move does increase pressure on all parties before the summit.
The commission, the EU’s powerful executive branch, has proposed a second option. It could try to raise the money on international markets, much in the way it underwrote a major economic recovery fund after the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Belgium prefers this option. But plan B would require all 27 leaders to agree for it to work, and Hungary refuses to fund Ukraine. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán sees himself as a peacemaker. He's also Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest ally in Europe.
In contrast, plan A — the reparations loan — only requires a majority of around two-thirds of member countries to pass. Hungary can't veto it alone. Slovakia might say no. Belgium, Bulgaria, Italy and Malta remain to be convinced.
Even if all six countries reject the loan to Ukraine — which would only be refunded if Russia ends its war and pays hundreds of billions of euros in war damages, something many Europeans doubt Putin would do — they still wouldn't have a blocking minority.
Running a steamroller over Belgium, which has a great stake in the outcome and deep concerns about the loan, could undermine the entire European project, making it infinitely more difficult to find voting majorities on other issues in the future.
But on the eve of the summit, it remained unclear precisely how the plan would work, what kind of guarantees each country would give to reassure Belgium it doesn't face Russia alone, and even whether the leaders can actually approve it outright this week.
“It’s a really new approach. Everyone has questions,” according to a senior EU diplomat involved in the negotiations, which continued on Wednesday. “You’re talking about mobilizing public finances. Parliaments might need to weigh in. It’s not easy.”
The diplomat was appointed to brief reporters on the latest developments on the condition that he not be named.
FILE - A view of the headquarters of Euroclear in Brussels, on Oct. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert, File)
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen addresses a media conference regarding Ukraine's financing needs for 2026-2027 at EU headquarters in Brussels, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Harry Nakos)
FILE - From left, European Council President Antonio Costa, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrive for an EU Summit at the European Council building in Brussels, March 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana, File)
In the Northern Hemisphere’s winter, she competes on the Alpine skiing World Cup circuit in the Alps.
In the Southern Hemisphere’s winter, she trains at home in New Zealand.
Alice Robinson hardly ever gets to put her flip-flops on and enjoy summer.
And that’s just fine with her.
“It’s just been my yearly routine for so long that I don’t really know much better,” Robinson said. “I definitely miss some summer but I’m definitely a lot more comfortable in the winter climate.”
Is she ever.
Robinson is off to quite a start to the Olympic season, shaping up as Mikaela Shiffrin’s biggest challenger in the overall World Cup standings.
In four giant slaloms, Robinson has registered two victories and a third-place finish.
Then on Sunday, she finished ahead of Sofia Goggia and Lindsey Vonn in the season’s opening super-G for her first career win in a speed discipline.
The victory in St. Moritz, Switzerland, made Robinson the first man or woman from New Zealand to win a super-G. That came after a giant slalom victory last month — the fifth win of her career — made her the most successful women’s World Cup winner from a non-European or North American nation.
Nearly two months into the season, Robinson sits second in the overall standings, 162 points behind Shiffrin.
Expanding to the speed disciplines has been something that Robinson has been considering ever since she announced herself to the skiing world by winning the season-opening slalom on the Rettenbach glacier in Sölden, Austria, six years ago as a 17-year-old.
“I never just wanted to be a one-trick pony,” she said.
Robinson’s results make her a multi-medal contender for the Feb. 6-22 Milan Cortina Olympics — where she could become the first Alpine skiing gold medalist from her country.
New Zealand’s only Olympic medal in Alpine skiing was a silver in slalom by Annelise Coberger at the 1992 Albertville Games.
Coberger’s brother, Nils Coberger, is one of Robinson’s coaches.
At last season’s world championships, Robinson took silver behind Federica Brignone in giant slalom for New Zealand’s first medal in the biggest skiing competition outside of the Olympics.
Constantly being on snow does have some draw backs, though.
“There’s certain things about summer that I miss, because in New Zealand we have Christmas and New Year’s over summer so that’s kind of a bit more of a memory that I miss,” Robinson told reporters earlier this season. “My one advantage being from New Zealand is that I get to train at home in the offseason when everyone else is traveling around.”
And when she’s in the Alps, Robinson takes advantage of the abundance of wellness facilities.
“I’ve become a bit of like a spa fan,” she said. “In New Zealand we just don’t do that — hotels don’t have spas.”
Robinson was born in Sydney to Australian parents and moved to New Zealand when she was four.
“If that didn’t happen I don’t think I would have ended up in ski racing growing up in Bondi,” she said of the beach town.
In her new home in Queenstown, Robinson and her two siblings were surrounded by mountains and it was “15 minutes door-to-door” to the Coronet Peak ski area.
“My parents just put us in ski school. My mum told me the other day that it was cheaper to put me in the ski creche than to get a babysitter,” Robinson said on a recent International Ski and Snowboard Federation podcast.
Robinson entered the final giant slalom of last season leading the discipline standings and set to clinch the first crystal globe of her career.
But she struggled with a gate in her first run at the World Cup finals in Sun Valley, Idaho, last March, veered off course and handed the title to Brignone.
Robinson said that failure “definitely kept the fire burning for this offseason to try and work harder to be more prepared and to mentally know how to deal with those higher intensity, higher pressure moments.”
Robinson was New Zealand’s youngest-ever Winter Olympian as a 16-year-old at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. Then she struggled with expectations at the 2022 Beijing Games after being locked out of her home country for two years due to New Zealand’s strict border controls during the coronavirus pandemic.
This time she has a new plan.
“With it being in Cortina, which is a familiar World Cup venue for us, I kind of just want to go into it treating it just like another World Cup race,” Robinson said.
During her first career race in Cortina, Robinson narrowly missed out on a medal at the 2021 world championships when she finished fourth in the giant slalom.
“Cortina was one of the first places that I ever skied in Europe because we had friends that were living there and so I’ve always loved Cortina,” Robinson said. “Outside of New Zealand, I think it’s definitely one of most beautiful places in the world.”
Andrew Dampf is at https://x.com/AndrewDampf
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
Alice Robinson, of New Zealand, celebrates her first place finish in the women's World Cup giant slalom in Mont Tremblant, Quebec, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)
New Zealand's Alice Robinson speeds down the course during an alpine ski, women's World Cup super-G event, in St. Moritz, Switzerland, Sunday Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)
