Europe’s response to Iran war risks becoming its ‘darkest hour’

The European Union (EU) is a bystander in the Iran war, but it might end up sustaining significant collateral damage. On one hand, public opinion across Europe is opposed to a conflict that circumvents the core principles of international law. On the other, the continent remains deeply reliant on the United States for its energy and security needs. A definitive anti-war stance risks alienating President Donald Trump, leaving Europe strategically exposed. Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place.Walking such a geopolitical tightrope must be excruciating. Yet, even tempering expectations, the response from Brussels has been unfortunate. Its leadership appears disappointingly ready to renounce the fundamental tenets of the EU’s identity. Kaja Kallas, the voice for EU foreign affairs, has restricted her rhetoric to condemning Iran without questioning the legality of the US-Israeli offensive.However, the most startling statement has come from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. She recently suggested that the international rules-based order may be a hindrance to the EU’s geopolitical interests. The same von der Leyen who, only three years ago, invoked international law to condemn Russia’s illegal war on Ukraine, now suggests those same rules are obsolete because they do not suit the EU’s immediate interests. The irony is biting.EU leaders have forgotten Winston Churchill’s powerful lesson that strength is often a state of mind. Defeatism is a self-fulfilling prophecy. By demoralising the population and sidelining the public anti-war sentiment, the Brussels elite risks widening the rift with civil society. This accentuates a long-standing sense of democratic deficit, skilfully appropriated in recent years by anti-EU factions within national politics.As the inevitable fallout of the war begins to materialise – in the form of soaring energy prices, inflation and mass migration – social instability will continue to fuel the Eurosceptic fire. When the captains of the ship insinuate that it is sinking, the passengers rush for the exit.If the EU resigns itself to the demise of the rules-based order, it will forfeit its ability to withstand external coercion, be it Russian expansionism or Trump’s Greenland ambitions. To concede is to jeopardise the existence of the single market, anchored on the principles of multilateralism that are now under siege.European Parliament member Irene Montero and Ione Belarra, secretary general of left-wing political party Podemos, shout slogans during an anti-war demonstration, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Madrid, Spain, on March 21. Photo: Reuters