BRUSSELS, Belgium, Dec 17, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - A Latin-quoting cat lover with a penchant for three-piece suits, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever has been thrust to centre stage in the EU over his opposition to using Russian assets for Ukraine.

With his country playing host to the vast bulk of the funds, all eyes will be on the straight-talking Flemish nationalist when the bloc's 27 leaders meet in Brussels on Thursday to try to hash out a deal.

The 54-year-old conservative is the main man standing in the way of a plan to tap Moscow's central bank assets to provide a 90-billion-euro ($105 billion) loan that Kyiv desperately needs to keep afloat.

Having gained a reputation for punchy phrases, the polyglot politician appears unlikely to shy away from the fight.

De Wever has warned the scheme could open up his country to Russian reprisals "for eternity" and insists he will "do everything" to stop that happening.

"For everyone it seems like a good idea: we take from the bad guy, Putin, to give to the good guy, Ukraine. It's Robin Hood," he told a conference in Brussels this month.

"But Moscow is not going to accept that calmly."

De Wever has insisted he wants to get rock-solid guarantees from other EU countries that they will share any legal and financial liabilities.

So far only Germany is engaging. "Everyone else looks at their shoes when I talk about this," he said.

- Golden egg -

Belgium, a country of just 12 million people, may host the EU's governing institutions -- but it very rarely finds itself in such a pivotal position for the whole bloc.

This time round it has been reluctantly thrust into the limelight as home to international deposit organisation Euroclear, which holds some 200 billion euros of the Russian assets.

De Wever, who only became prime minister in February, has likened the money to the fabled goose that laid the golden egg.

"Before we eat it, a few questions need to be resolved," he quipped.

Having long agitated for his Dutch-speaking home region to break free from the rest of Belgium -- his fierce stance protecting what he insists is the national interest has won him plaudits across the political spectrum.

In a poll released Monday some two thirds of Belgians said they were against the Russian asset plan.

- Maximus the cat -

The former mayor of Antwerp's flamboyant style doesn't come as too much of a surprise to his countrymen.

The father-of-four has previously dressed up as a panda to lampoon a political rival and announced he had clinched a deal to form a national government with a one-line tweet in Latin.

On Instagram he frequently shares videos and pictures of rescue cat Maximus, who he adopted for the prime minister's office after taking power.

On a visit to London for talks with counterpart Keir Starmer last week he took time out to do a selfie together with Downing Street's famed Larry the Cat.

Belgium's complex political system means that De Wever is well versed in the art of painstaking negotiations and cobbling together compromise deals.

But EU officials and diplomats are wary that his nationalist stance may make him more eager to be seen to be standing up to traditional heavyweights such as Germany.

And despite his often deadpan demeanour and the pressure he is under, political commentators in Belgium say De Wever seems to be enjoying holding cards on the EU stage.

"He likes to present himself there as a statesman capable of exerting influence," political scientist Jean Faniel told AFP.