Didier Reynders announced the figure ahead of an informal meeting of EU justice and home affairs ministers in the Czech capital Prague, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Reynders said that five countries have frozen EUR 12 billion worth of Russian oligarchs’ assets between them, but did not provide details, according to the PAP news agency.
He added that during the Prague meeting he would be calling on other member states to follow suit.
Reynders also said he hoped that all EU countries would coordinate their legal regulations, paving the way for a court procedure to seize Russian assets.
“If this happens, the money will go to a collective fund for the Ukrainian people,” he said.
Russian war crimes in Ukraine
The Prague get-together was also set to focus on Russian war crimes in Ukraine, officials told reporters.
Reynders said he would urge member states to work together in collecting evidence of such crimes.
Praise for Poland
He praised Poland, Slovakia and the Baltic states "for setting up a joint investigative team with the support of the EU’s agency for criminal-justice cooperation, Eurojust."
Reynders also said that "it should be determined" whether "Ukraine war-related crimes trials" could be brought before the Hague-based International Court of Justice.
Russia may have committed not only war crimes, but also crimes against humanity, Reynders told reporters.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, czech-presidency.consilium.europa.eu