the EU still does not have a mechanism for the confiscation of Russian assets

The authorities of the European Union have not yet found a legal mechanism for the confiscation of frozen Russian assets. Their total value is more than 200 billion euros. The Bloomberg agency has a document in which the EU working group assesses the possibility of disposing of Russian assets in Europe.

The document states that “there is no reliable legal mechanism to confiscate frozen or immobilized assets only on the basis that they are subject to EU sanctions.”

According to the working group, a significant part of the frozen Russian deposits is in the European depository Euroclear. Although the assets themselves remain stationary, they continue to generate profits, which reached approximately 750 million euros by the first quarter of this year. The European Union offers to direct this profit to help Ukraine. The issue will be discussed at a meeting of European leaders in Brussels next week.

According to Bloomberg, the management of several large European banks expressed concern that if the European Union begins to seize Russian assets in Europe, Moscow may, in revenge, make it difficult for those European financial organizations that still retain interests in Russia and, in particular, “play back” on them Russian employees.

• In October of last year, the European Council instructed the European Commission to develop a mechanism for the use of sanctioned Russian assets for the reconstruction of Ukraine. Later, the European Commission allowed the confiscation of Russian funds to pay reparations to Kyiv.
• The Kremlin said that if foreign countries decide to use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine, then such a step will be regarded by Moscow as direct theft. The President of Russia called the EU’s proposals a violation of the rules and regulations of international trade.