The EU has drafted business safeguards to salvage the Iran nuclear deal, including prohibiting firms from complying with US sanctions and sending money to Iran’s central bank. Experts doubt such efforts will be enough.
The European Commission (EC) on Friday began work on a series of measures to shield European companies investing in Iran and support Tehran’s economy, in the hope of salvaging the Iran nuclear deal following the US decision to withdraw.
The European Union, once Iran’s biggest oil importer, is determined to save the nuclear accord, which US President Donald Trump abandoned on May 8, by keeping money flowing to Tehran as long as the Islamic Republic complies with the 2015 deal to prevent it from developing an atomic weapon.
To counter the impact of US sanctions, Brussels started to update the so-called blocking statute — legislation that prohibits EU companies from complying with the sanctions and allows them to recover any damages suffered.
“We have the duty, the Commission and the European Union, to do what we can to protect our European businesses, especially SMEs,” the head of the bloc’s executive, Jean-Claude Juncker, said at a news conference.
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The aim is to have the measure in effect before the first batch of US sanctions kicks in on August 6, the EU’s executive said in a statement. The bloc, once Iran’s top trading partner, hopes Tehran will continue to comply with the deal as long as it manages to preserve enough of the economic benefits promised in return, which is considered critical to keeping the deal alive.
“As long as the Iranians respect their commitments, the EU will of course stick to the agreement of which it was an architect,” Juncker said, while warning that the US decision to reimpose sanctions “will not be without effect.”
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