France and its European allies plan to submit proposals to the European Commission that are designed to strengthen Europe's capacity to defend its economic interests, France's finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, said on Friday.
"There is a realisation among all European states what we cannot keep going in the direction we are headed today whereby we submit to American decisions," Le Maire told reporters on Europe's response to US sanctions on Iran.
Europe needed to toughen rules dating back to 1996, he said, adding: "France, together with other European partners, hopes to present proposals to the European Commission which go in this sense."
"We have to work among ourselves in Europe to defend our economic sovereignty," Le Maire told Europe 1 radio.
He said the EU would hold "collective discussions with the United States to obtain... different rules" covering European companies that do business with Iran.
"At the end of May I will meet with the British and German finance ministers and the three of us will look at what we can do."
Le Maire said he had called US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on Wednesday urging him to allow exceptions for French companies or a delay in implementing the sanctions, while admitting he has "few illusions" about the likely response.
US President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he was pulling out of the landmark 2015 deal curbing Iran's nuclear program, reintroducing sanctions on the country and those who trade with it.
Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has branded the sanctions "unacceptable.”
"The Europeans should not have to pay for the withdrawal of an agreement by the United States, to which they had themselves contributed," he told Le Parisien newspaper.
