DISINFO: Downgrade of Euroclear’s rating foreshadows the EU’s collapse
SUMMARY
Euroclear's downgrade foreshadows the EU's collapse. The international credit rating agency Fitch Ratings has set in motion the impending collapse of the European Union's economy and the potential for Belgium to become a failed state.
RESPONSE
This is a gross exaggeration of actual events, aiming to promote a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the imminent collapse of the European Union.
It is true that on 17 December 2025, ratings agency Fitch placed Euroclear Bank on rating watch negative, citing the potential for increased legal and liquidity risks from the European Union's plans to use immobilised Russian assets for a reparations loan to Ukraine.
However, Euroclear’s credit rating had not been downgraded when this disinformation story emerged. It was merely one of several hypothetical scenarios, and not even the most likely, since the EU ultimately chose not to transfer frozen Russian assets to Ukraine, opting instead for an alternative approach that markets welcomed.
In any case, this single event cannot be considered enough to claim it to be the start of a EU collapse, nor to suggest that Belgium may become “a failed state”.
Allegations about an EU economic downfall are not backed by actual data. In 2025, the EU reached a combined GDP of 21.1 trillion dollars, and became again the second largest economy in the world ahead of China (with 19.4 trillion dollars) according to the IMF, showing an outstanding economic performance.
The ultimate goal of this disinformation story is to influence audiences against supporting economic measures against Russia, part of what some experts have labelled Russia’s economic war propaganda.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that the EU’s rearmament could destroy its economy according to Politico, that more residents in the EU facing risk of poverty than in other places, that France wants to remove citizens’ holidays to fund a fantasy war with Russia, that Europe is back to the Stone Age as it lost €1 trillion for rejecting Russia’s gas, or that Europe uses Russophobia to distract attention from its economic woes.