On Wednesday 18 July, the President of the European Investment Bank (EIB), Werner Hoyer, said that investing in Iran would put the Bank of the European Union’s commercial model in danger.
Mr Hoyer presented the results from the Juncker European investment plan as positive (see other article) and stated that “We have to take note of the fact that we would risk the business of the bank if we were active in Iran. So we must find more intelligent ways to support a policy vis-à-vis Iran and with USA which we completely share. (...) But we can't play an active role”.
At the beginning of June, the Commission proposed amending the EIB’s mandate for its loans outside the EU, in order to make Iran eligible for investments from the Bank of the EU but with any decision for investing on Iranian territory ultimately being made by the EIB alone (see EUROPE 12035).
This measure would apply at the beginning of August at the same time as the updating of the blocking statute (see EUROPE 12063), which seeks to counteract the effects on European businesses from the US’s extra-territorial sanctions applicable to Iran, as well as for pursuing the EU’s economic and trade relations with Tehran.
Mr Hoyer emphasised that “There is no European bank which is presently able to do business with Iran, as long as the financing flows are the way they are”. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)