Updated 5.30pm with Malta government reaction.
The Malta government on Wednesday said it had helped foreign governments identify and seize Russian-owned assets worth millions.
It was reacting after an EU spokesperson was quoted by Reuters news agency saying that Malta and Greece did not appear to be doing enough to enforce sanctions against Russia in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.
According to the report, quoting an EU document, Malta had frozen less than €150,000 in Russian assets, the lowest of all the member states.
"Either they don't have much, or they are not doing their job. Or they have done something but not communicated to us even though they had chances,” an EU official told the news agency.
Billions seized across EU
According to Reuters, the EU document showed how almost every other EU state has frozen millions of euros worth of Russian assets.
Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy and Spain had each notified the EU that they have seized more than a billion euros.
Only Greece, which only seized €212,000, came close to the €147,000 seized by Malta.
The assets ranged from bank holdings to yachts, cars and real estate.
Malta government explains
In a reaction, a spokesperson for the Office of the Prime Minister said Malta actually froze €222,000 in Russian assets 'and found millions more located overseas.’
"The authorities in the public and private sectors remain engaged in an ongoing exercise that has so far revealed that the vast majority of Russian assets registered in Malta were not located in the country," the spokesperson said.
Historically, Malta had not sought Russian investments, he added.
“Malta has been proactively assisting other member states in identifying problematic assets. It is also worth noting that a number of assets belonging to listed individuals or entities (registered in Malta but physically elsewhere) have been seized and frozen by other EU Member States, through mutual cooperation.”
Sources close to the government told Times of Malta that “many millions” in Russian assets were identified as ships or yachts that are registered in Malta but were located in other countries.
In those instances, the Maltese government notified the countries where the vessels were located. The respective countries, then, seized the assets themselves.
“Furthermore, there have been a number of judgments by European Courts which related to assets registered in Malta and belonging to Maltese companies which were sold and the proceeds of such assets have been also frozen in bank accounts outside of Malta but within the European Union,” the government said.
“A lot of work has been invested by Malta in support of the common European efforts.
“Moreover, recent data shows a significant decrease in trade between Malta and Russia, which attests to Malta’s commitment to implement EU decisions.”
Assets may be confiscated and used for Ukraine's reconstruction
The EU introduced a raft of sanctions against named Russian companies and individuals in 2022, in reaction to that country’s invasion of Ukraine.
There are currently around 1,300 people and 120 Russian entities on an EU blacklist, along with a variety of sanctions to limit trade with Russia of various goods and services.
Assets seized as a result of those sanctions remain frozen, although European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has indicated that the Commission would like to confiscate them and use them to help finance the reconstruction of Ukraine.
The plan could run into legal hurdles, as it is currently illegal for EU countries to confiscate items frozen as a result of sanctions. To confiscate assets and sell them off, their owner must first be convicted of a crime.
An even more ambitious EU plan is to find a way of confiscating roughly €300 billion in reserves owned by Russia’s Central Bank, to use to rebuild Ukraine.
State assets are protected under international law, making it especially difficult to reuse those Russian assets without that country’s assent.