Washington threatens to punish European companies for doing business with Iran. Nevertheless, several European states have devised a plan to circumvent US sanctions. A Special Purpose Vehicle is to be set up to ensure payment transactions between European and Iranian companies, regardless of the US dollar.
Although the European External Action Service coordinated the negotiations, society should not become an EU institution. Rather, it is supported by the three EU states, which also negotiated the nuclear agreement with Iran. Paris should therefore be the seat of the new company, Germany the managing director, the British build the accounting.
The company is a type of exchange market in which the claims of Iranian and European companies are offset against each other. For example, money that Iran bills for oil supplies to Europe could go directly to European companies selling products to Iran.
On Monday, EU foreign ministers want to announce the plans. However, at the moment it still hangs over the question of how strong the criticism of the Iranian impulses in the region should be in the Council conclusions. The Federal Government holds the position that the Iranian missile program and the destructive role of Tehran in Syria should be condemned as sharply as possible. Other EU countries do not want to mix the trade issue with other issues. If EU countries can not agree on a common language, the payment system plans will not be presented.
Some companies want to withdraw from the business
The idea for a payment system that is independent of the US dollar was born shortly after the US withdrawal from the nuclear agreement. "We are working very hard to clarify the final requirements," Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told SPIEGEL in early January. "This is not easy in a confrontational situation with the United States, because of course, they are also trying to exert pressure."
US President Donald Trump announced the "harshest sanctions of all time" last year. The US ambassador to Berlin, Richard Grenell, has long been warning German companies about US sanctions should they continue to trade with Iran. Some German companies have already announced their intention to withdraw from the Iran business.