diff --git a/capnp/lib/capnp.pyx b/capnp/lib/capnp.pyx
index 57d675c..915968a 100644
--- a/capnp/lib/capnp.pyx
+++ b/capnp/lib/capnp.pyx
@@ -1631,7 +1631,7 @@ cdef class _EventLoop:
     cdef Own[AsyncIoStream] wrapSocketFd(self, int fd):
         return deref(deref(self.thisptr).lowLevelProvider).wrapSocketFd(fd)
 
-cdef _EventLoop C_DEFAULT_EVENT_LOOP = _EventLoop()
+cdef _EventLoop C_DEFAULT_EVENT_LOOP
 
 _C_DEFAULT_EVENT_LOOP_LOCAL = None
 _THREAD_LOCAL_EVENT_LOOPS = []