MOSCOW, December 23. /TASS/. The European Union is working on a legal framework which would allow Brussels to officially confiscate the Russian assets frozen under sanctions and use them for the reconstruction of Ukraine, President of the European Council Charles Michel said in an interview with journalist Alexey Venediktov (recognized as a foreign agent in Russia). The interview was released on the RTVI YouTube channel on Friday.

"Both the European Council and the European Commission have legally prepared a note for EU member states to determine the legal options. We have the opportunity not only to freeze, as we have already done this, but also to confiscate and use these funds to rebuild Ukraine," Michel said.

The President of the European Council also pointed out that "every day the account for the restoration of Ukraine grows."

"Experts say that an amount between 350 and 500 billion euros is needed for this," Michel added.

Earlier, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that the EU had frozen 19 billion euros in Russian business assets and up to 300 billion euros of the Bank of Russia’s assets. He also noted that the EU cannot yet confiscate this money, since the necessary legal framework has not yet been created for this, but the European Commission is working hard to establish the required "legal norms."

Soon after that the European media reported that Brussels found that the account contained no more than 100 billion out of the frozen 300 billion euros. Where the other 200 billion euros went, the European Commission does not know.