LONDON, June 28. /TASS/. EU leaders are divided on how to proceed regarding the use of Russia's frozen assets, while some EU member states are pushing the European Commission to delay its proposals, the Financial Times wrote on Wednesday.

EU nations are heavily divided over the EC’s idea to use Russian frozen assets. Big countries including Germany are reluctant to rush down this route as they fear that a radical proposal could shake faith in the safety of assets stored by foreign states in Europe, the paper said. "There’s a lot of work to do to convince member states," one EU official was quoted as saying.

The European Commission said earlier that it was examining another route: managing the Russian assets to generate returns that could be used for Ukraine, while ensuring the underlying assets can eventually be returned to Russia, the newspaper wrote. However, this still carries legal jeopardy and poses a risk that the assets lose value and have to be made whole by European taxpayers, FT noted.

The EC has repeatedly stated since last year that the existing European legislation does not permit confiscation of foreign assets frozen as a result of unilateral EU restrictions and their transfer to another person or state. Meanwhile, the Commission has started intensive efforts on changing the European regulation to legalize confiscation of such assets.