EU Not Going to Seize Frozen Russian Assets for Now Due to Lack of Legal Clarity - Borrell

MOSCOW, (Sputnik) - The European Union is not going to seize frozen Russian assets for "the time being" for military support of Ukraine due to the lack of clarity on legal issues in this regard, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, the largest political group in the European Parliament, the European People's Party, urged the bloc to seize all frozen Russian assets to fund reparations for Ukraine following Saturday's vote by the US House of Representatives to pass a draft law providing for the confiscation of Russia's frozen assets.

"And by the time being, we are not going to take, to seize the capital because there is not enough clarity about what we can do and what we cannot do," Borrell said at the European Parliament Plenary session.

After the start of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine in 2022, the EU and G7 froze almost half of Russia's foreign currency reserves amounting to about 300 billion euros ($320.8 billion). The EU is discussing ways to use frozen Russian assets to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine. The European Central Bank warned that this could pose reputational risks to the European currency in the long term, and advocated looking beyond that isolated conflict.

Moscow has on many occasions said that any attempts to confiscate frozen Russian assets are an expropriation of property and a violation of international law. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Sputnik that Russia would do everything possible to return the seized assets.