A decision by EU leaders to begin the 'blocking statute' process, which aims to neutralize the extraterritorial effects of US sanctions in the EU, has not stopped companies from pulling out of Iran.
Danish shipping giant Maersk and German insurer Allianz said Thursday they plan to wind down activities in Iran. Their announcement came a day after Total warned it could pull out.
A.P. Moller-Maersk Chief Executive Soren Skou said the company was winding down its business in Iran following new US sanctions. "I don't know the timing details exactly, but I am certain that we're also going to shut down (in Iran)," he told Reuters.
The EU leaders discussed Iran at a meeting in Bulgaria, European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said, adding the bloc would start measures on Friday to ease the effect of the US sanctions on European companies.
"We will begin the 'blocking statute' process...We must do it and we will do it tomorrow morning at 10:30," Juncker said at the summit in Sofia.
The "blocking statute" is a 1996 regulation originally created to get around Washington's trade embargo on Cuba, which prohibits EU companies and courts from complying with specific foreign sanction laws, and says no foreign court judgments based on these laws have any effect in the European Union.
US President Donald Trump last week controversially pulled Washington out of the 2015 international deal with Iran that placed limits on its nuclear program in return for easing economic sanctions.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that one reason for the efforts to prop up the Iran deal is "so that our businesses can remain" in Iran.
The EU leaders pledged at the meeting to keep a united front against Trump.
EU President Donald Tusk renewed attacks on him.
"The real geopolitical problem is not when you have an unpredictable opponent or enemy, the problem is if your closest friend is unpredictable. It's not a joke now," Tusk told a news conference.
