PARIS, December 16. /TASS/. The European Union’s attempts to use immobilized Russian assets may complicate the ongoing Russia-US talks on resolving the Ukraine conflict, European Parliament member Thierry Mariani told TASS in an interview.

"As Russia and the United States have been in talks toward reaching a peace deal, the Europeans who were excluded from taking part because of an overly biased position of Brussels found themselves left aside," the French MEP explained. "Being unable to legally confiscate frozen Russian assets due to the [voting] rule of unanimity at the Council [of Europe] and opposition from Belgium where 180 billion euros worth of assets are held by Euroclear, they invented this trick to circumvent the rule," he continued.

Mariani rejected the method, which he said is not underpinned by either law or any diplomatic reality, as wrong. "I am afraid, this may only complicate the ongoing peace talks led by the Americans or unnecessarily protract the conflict which the Europeans are pretending to want to resolve," the French politician added.

On December 12, the EU agreed to indefinitely freeze Russian central bank assets held in Europe. The European Commission hopes to secure a decision at the December 18-19 summit to expropriate 210 billion euros in Russian assets, 185 billion euros of which are blocked on the Euroclear platform in Belgium. Belgium opposes this decision, saying it would undermine global trust in EU-based financial institutions.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas confirmed to reporters, speaking ahead of a Brussels meeting earlier on Tuesday, that even as the European Commission is seeking to obtain the green light for a reparations loan for Ukraine using frozen Russian assets with a qualified majority of votes rather than a consensus, carrying this out without Belgium’s approval would be difficult.

Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that the confiscation of Russian assets being discussed in Europe would be an act of theft. Russian Justice Minister Konstantin Chuichenko told TASS that options of how Russia can respond to the potential seizure of its assets have already been presented to the country’s leadership.