Can Europe live without the United States?

With friends like Donald Trump, who needs enemies?

That was the reaction from European Council Chief Donald Tusk when the United States president withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal and reimposed sanctions.

European Union leaders want to save the nuclear deal – and with it multi-billion dollar business contracts. 

But European companies are bowing to US demands by pulling out of Iran – including British Airways and Air France, which are grounding flights to Tehran.

That’s despite revised EU legislation called “blocking statute,” which is aimed at nullifying US legal action against European firms that defy US sanctions on Iran. 

Germany’s foreign minister, meanwhile, has called for independent payment channels to be created that could avoid US sanctions.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron says Europe’s historical partner “seems to turn his back on this common history”.

So, how wide is the rift across the Atlantic?

Presenter: Elizabeth Puranam

Guests:

Thorsten Benner – director, Global Public Policy Institute

Cathryn Cluver Ashbrook – executive director, Future of Diplomacy Project, Harvard Kennedy School

Daniel Gros – director, Centre for European Policy Studies