BUCHAREST, December 16. /TASS/. The confiscation of Russian sovereign funds held in the EU is "impossible from a legal, financial, and moral point of view," former Romanian Foreign Minister Adrian Severin said in an article for the juridice.ro news outlet.
"The founding treaties of the EU do not allow the European Commission to confiscate the sovereign assets of states, even member states, let alone states that are not members of the EU," he emphasized. "Freezing such assets is illegal under both European and international law," the former top diplomat noted.
"Such a measure is an act of economic warfare, not a sanction," he noted. "Sanctions in international relations can only be applied by independent, neutral, and objective institutions, and only in relation to states that recognize the authority of these institutions," the expert said.
According to Severin, transitioning from a consensus-based system to another voting system in the EU "is only possible through a preliminary decision taken by consensus."
The former top diplomat pointed out that this would be a direct violation of European treaties and could theoretically be brought before the EU Court of Justice. "I say ‘theoretically’, because the EU Court, the European Court of Human Rights, and the International Criminal Court have been politicized and no longer guarantee a fair trial," he stressed.
The expert opined that "the European Commission's illegal, inappropriate, and immoral decision will not be implemented by states holding Russian sovereign funds," as it "does not exempt them from liability or the objective commercial consequences of the decision, which will devastate Western financial markets." "Therefore, I think that this decision is rather symbolic, reflecting the desperation of Ursula von der Leyen's ‘organized crime group,’ which is unable to continue the war in Ukraine," Severin concluded.