Belgium's highest administrative court, the Council of State, found the authorities' refusal to lift the freeze on the assets of Russia's BCS Bank to be unlawful.
The court established that the official who refused the unblocking did not have the legal authority to do so, because the finance minister had not defined the principles or restrictions that were to be followed when issuing individual decisions.
"The contested act was therefore adopted by an incompetent body," the Council of State's ruling says.
This decision could affect other owners of frozen assets: the court called into question the lawfulness of the very mechanism used by the Treasury when considering applications to unblock funds.
Nevertheless, there will be no automatic unfreezing of the funds: the Belgian authorities will have to reconsider the Russian bank's request.
In July 2024, the Belgian Treasury refused to unblock funds and securities, stating that the bank had not confirmed the complete termination of relations with the sanctioned National Settlement Depository. In addition, it claimed that after unfreezing, the bank intended to transfer the funds outside the EU, which allegedly complicated control over compliance with European sanctions.