Officials in Paris are also privately warming to the idea.
PARIS — French lawmakers on Wednesday night passed a nonbinding resolution urging the European Union to seize frozen Russian assets and use them to support Ukraine.
The vote comes as European countries are increasingly looking at the idea of seizing around €200 billion in Russian assets that were immobilized after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Most of those assets are held in Brussels-based financial institution Euroclear.
France has so far publicly opposed the move, as it fears it could breach international law and spook investors. But French officials are privately warming to the idea. G7 countries last year agreed to use profits from those assets — rather than the assets directly — to back a $50 billion loan to Ukraine.
More than 60 percent of lawmakers present voted for the measure. The far-right National Rally abstained, while the hard-left France Unbowed voted against it en masse.
The text also urges the EU and its member countries “to facilitate” Ukraine’s accession to the bloc.
The eight-hour-long debate put on full display the divisions within French politics with respect to supporting Ukraine militarily and allowing it to enter the EU — the latter of which lawmakers from France Unbowed and the National Rally were particularly worried about.
