On Thursday 17 May, the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, announced that the European institution was to start the preparatory work, this Friday 18 May, to amend the 1996 regulation, known as the ‘blocking statutes’, to add the new American sanctions against Iran.
During the informal dinner in Sofia the day before, the European leaders gave the Commission their blessing to be ready to act whenever European interests are affected, the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, reported.
“It is our duty to protect our European businesses, particularly SMEs (…). We must act now. This is why we are launching the recourse procedure against the 1996 blocking statutes, which aims to neutralise the extra-territorial effects of the American sanctions in the EU”, Juncker explained after the Western Balkans summit in Sofia. “We must act and we will do so (this Friday) at 10:30”, he added.
According to a European source, the Commission will launch the procedure this Friday to prepare the delegated act to update the legislations covered by the regulation. It explained that the member states will be involved at a technical level to draft the document.
Once it has been adopted by the Commission, the act will be sent to the Council and the Parliament. A period of two months will then begin, after which, if neither of the institutions has objected, the act will be deemed to have been adopted. However, the same source went on to explain, the Council of the EU and the Parliament must vote in favour of the act, by qualified majority for the former and by a majority of its members for the latter.
Juncker added that the European leaders had decided to allow the EIB to facilitate investments of European businesses in Iran. He also warned that the Commission would maintain cooperation with Iran to continue exchanges, announcing the visit to the country of the Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy, Miguel Arias Cañete.
Other measures are reportedly being discussed. For instance, the Belgian Prime Minister, Charles Michel, called for the EU to make sure that the “guarantee mechanisms for investments in potentially high-risk countries are better coordinated at European level, to give European businesses more support”. According to a French source, positive support for smaller businesses with commitments on the Iranian market is being considered.
According to a European official, discussions on exemptions to sanctions for European businesses will take place next week.
The French source went on to say that discussions were also underway with the Americans to find out what the effects of the sanctions to be introduced will be. “Because it is not very clear. There is a dialogue on how a sanction will apply, or not”, the source added.
Discussing other causes for concern
The French President, Emmanuel Macron, warned that there was no question of tit-for-tat reprisals against the US. “We are not going to declare a strategic-commercial war with the United States over Iran. We are not going to sanction or counter-sanction American businesses in response to this matter”, he explained.
“Our role is to ensure peace and stability in the region. Our responsibility is not to businesses”, Macron added. Because although the Europeans want to save the agreement, they are also aware that they need to tackle the subjects of concern to the Americans, such as Iranian nuclear issues post-2025, the role of Iran in the region and its ballistics programme.
“We need to work towards maintaining the framework of the 2015 agreement, irrespective of the US decision, by providing a political commitment, by ensuring that businesses can stay in Iran and also by conducting negotiations on a broader, indispensable agreement”, Macron explained, calling for agreements on these causes of concern on top of the agreement on Iranian nuclear. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)