European Council President Charles Michel admitted on Tuesday that it would not be easy to develop a legal framework that would allow the EU to seize frozen Russian state assets.
It is not easy because there are international and legal constraints. We need to work hard, but we will work with our G7 partnersHe said this at the plenary session of the European Parliament.
It is estimated that the EU and its G7 partners – the United States, Japan and Canada – collectively hold about $300 billion in assets from the Russian central bank. The seven have been holding talks on how to release the money allegedly used to finance Ukraine's reconstruction, but Russia believes this is illegal and will undermine the West's image as a global haven for money.
Michel said the European Commission should focus on a program that would allow it to release profits generated by frozen Russian state assets.
He said in parliament ".The Council must move forward and give the Commission the task of focusing on profit so that we can make sure that this money goes to support Ukraine.
The Financial Times reported over the weekend that Western countries are working on a plan to allow them to issue debt bonds to finance Ukraine using Russian assets as support for debt repayments.
Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said last week that the EU's planned seizure of the central bank's assets was an "escalation of economic aggression" and a war, warning that Russia would respond in a correspondingly harsh manner. She said any attempt to confiscate Russian assets would be a serious violation of Western countries' own laws, international rules and bilateral obligations.