Brussels has unveiled details of measures that would block American sanctions against European companies trying to do business with Iran, in a bid to head off Donald Trump’s new economic assault on the Middle Eastern county.
The US president announced the re-introduction of the anti-Iran sanctions as he confirmed US was breaking the international deal designed to put a stop to the country’s nuclear programme – with the end to sanctions as a reward for compliance.
Mr Trump’s administration has not ruled out hitting European companies that trade with Iran with its new measures, so the EU has now responded by updating a “blocking statue” originally meant to circumvent a the US embargo against Cuba in the 1990s.
The move would prohibit EU-based companies from complying with the US sanctions, and provide compensation if they were affected by American penalties against them.
“As long as the Iranians respect their commitments, the EU will of course stick to the agreement of which it was an architect – an agreement that was unanimously ratified by the United Nations Security Council and which is essential for preserving peace in the region and the world,” Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, said on Friday morning.
“But the American sanctions will not be without effect. So we have the duty, the Commission and the European Union, to do what we can to protect our European businesses, especially small and medium enterprises.”
The European Parliament and European Council will be allowed to scrutinise the new policy; it was unanimously by EU heads of state and government at a summit in Sofia this week. The original blocking clause was never actually used when it first drawn up to circumvent the US’s anti-Cuba embargo in 1996.