EU riposte to sanctions in trouble

Date: 26/09/1996

By Elizabeth Wise and Ole Ryborg

ATTEMPTS to devise a EU-wide strategy for retaliation against threatened US sanctions on firms doing business in Cuba, Libya and Iran have run into a legal brick wall.

As the debate rages across EU capitals over how - and when - to respond to the Helms-Burton and D'Amato laws, experts are still searching for a legal basis which would make it possible to introduce Union-wide counter-measures.

With lawyers raising question marks over each of the treaty articles suggested as a possible basis for action, it looks increasingly likely that member states will be forced down the route of intergovernmental cooperation, with each introducing national laws to achieve the same goal.

The problem with this approach is that it is likely to be time consuming, dashing the hopes of those anxious for a swift response to Washington's decision to sign both Helms-Burton and D'Amato into law.