Russian assets: Negotiating leverage EU would be wrong to ignore

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.03.13-133825/https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2025/03/13/russian-assets-negotiating-leverage-eu-would-be-wrong-to-ignore_6739104_23.html

Seizing Russia's frozen capital itself, on the other hand, poses a thornier legal question. In the name of the "immunity from enforcement" principle, states do not have the right to seize other states' assets. This would put the European Union in an awkward position regarding one of its fundamental principles and its credibility when it demands that the rest of the international community respect the law would suffer. Financial circles have also highlighted a reputation risk, which would dissuade investors from entrusting their assets to an entity that might be likely to confiscate them. Some have considered that the eurozone's credibility would be undermined to the point of harming its attractiveness.

These warnings must be taken seriously. However, they must be weighed against Europe's geopolitical interests. The EU, which, at this stage, has been excluded from attempts at peace negotiations, holds too few cards for it to definitively rule out seizing Russian assets. On the contrary, this could represent very useful leverage for getting concessions from Moscow.