The Guardian | Patrick Wintour: Europe is being affected by the threat of US sanctions on firms that trade with Iran

Plans to reduce European Union dependence on the US dollar – and so improve the bloc’s ability to run an independent foreign policy that is less exposed to US sanctions – were unveiled on Wednesday by the European commission.

The proposal has grown in significance for European integrationists as firms from EU countries withdraw investments from Iran faced by the threat of punitive secondary sanctions from the US.

The EU, unlike the US, wants to maintain the nuclear deal with Iran signed in 2015, but needs to deliver on its side of the bargain by increasing trade with Tehran.

Iranian rulers are becoming increasingly restive as the EU struggles to develop an institutional mechanism to shield Europe from the threat of US sanctions on firms, banks and individual directors that continue to trade with Iran. The US secondary sanctions can be applied on any European firm with links to the US market.

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