Belgium, (Brussels Morning Newspaper) The EU has frozen more than 20 billion euro worth of sanctioned Russian assets and is discussing what to do with them.
Besides assets that have already been frozen, Russian Central Bank (CBR) assets worth an estimated 300 billion euro could be at stake, according to Reuters reporting on Wednesday.
The European Commission proposed last year to invest the assets and donate the proceeds to Ukraine, noting that the plan would make it possible to return the assets if the bloc lifts the sanctions. The EU is also planning to criminalise sanctions evasion and circumvention.
Some EU member states have criticised the plan, pointing to lack of legal precedent and warning that it could result in lawsuits.
According to an internal document and an EU official, Greece and Malta are lagging behind their EU counterparts in freezing Russian assets.
While Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg and Spain have reported freezing more than one billion euro worth of sanctioned Russian assets each, Greece and Malta reported 212,000 and 147,000, respectively.
The majority of other bloc members reported freezing millions worth of assets, according to the internal document.
The EU official expressed surprise at the diversity, predicting that Greece and Malta “don’t have much or they are not doing their job.”
Greece, and Malta respond
According to a Greek official, the country has frozen all sanctioned Russian assets. “Greece’s investment environment does not favor the inflow of Russian capital and offshore companies,” the official pointed out.
A Maltese government spokesman noted, “assets have been frozen or sold off under court orders and the proceeds frozen due to Malta’s cooperation with other European jurisdictions.”
He reminded that Maltese authorities provided information to help other EU member states freeze sanctioned Russian assets and confirmed the amount listed in the internal EU document.
The EU has approximately 1,300 Russian individuals and about 120 entities on the sanctions list and has imposed economic sanctions on Russian sectors of banking, defense, energy, media, trade, and transport.
Sweden, which currently presides over the EU, noted on Wednesday that the bloc could add more individuals to the sanctions list.
