The EU as the biggest and allegedly the most successful regional bloc has gone through a lot of developments in its history. The EU has faced a variety of challenges including economic and Eurozone crises and consequently debts brought to EU states, challenges to NATO, a refugee crisis from Muslim countries and coping with a dramatically increasing Muslim population, Brexit and finally the growth of radical and EU-skeptical parties.
Some challenges such as Brexit, Trump’ taking power in the U.S. and its consequences like extremist parties campaigning against free trade and globalization have weakened the principle values of the EU. Yet in recent elections in some EU countries such as Austria, Netherlands, Italy, and France, extremist parties have failed. Although according to surveys in 2016 and 2017, people’s tendencies toward radical parties have risen.
Nevertheless, one can conclude that the winning of the election by the pro-Europe Macron and Merkel’s high chance of winning in the upcoming elections in September, will have a very positive impact on the EU compared to the tumultuous 2016. The most important of these successes are as follows:
One is the weakening of European skeptics and consequently the strengthening of new approaches to Europeanism with institutional reforms, the strengthening of German-French relations following Macron’s victory in France, the temporary halt of far right parties (the decline of extreme nationalism in Europe), the strengthening of the Union’s defense mechanisms through the plan of the European Independent Army; as well as the decisiveness of European leaders in negotiating Brexit.
Secondly, the victory of Emmanuel Macron is considered a great victory for pro-EU politicians—given the presidential campaign mottos made by Marin Le Pen, the leader of the French National Front party regarding her opposition to French membership in the European Union, the Schengen Area and the Eurozone, and supporting economic protectionism, as well as a zero tolerance approach to law and order issues, and finally opposition to free migration.
Therefore, Macron’s success in advancing his own programs can marginalize extremist parties for the time to come, and in the case of Macron’s failure to implement his programs, it would be possible for NF and also other far right parties to increase their chance of victory in the future. In Germany in case of Merkel’s victory in the coming elections of September 2017, it seems that Germany and France will have an unprecedented partnership in the field of EU Brexit negotiations, structural reforms of the European Union and the Euro zone, and particularly in defense and military projects to reestablish a more integrated EU.
Despite the prospects of the pro-president in France for the EU and the likelihood of the expansion of Berlin-Paris partnership, it seems the EU would be facing with some challenges in future. Those include The Brexit and negotiations about establishing free trade agreements with the UK, everlasting threats of immigration and terrorism and the issues related to transatlantic relations especially in defense and security areas.
Iran-EU Relations
Despite some ups and downs in their relations, Europe and Iran have had a long and incessant history of cooperation. Interestingly, this history of cooperation even surpasses the history of the U.S. as a nation state. With this rich background, no one can deny that there are various common grounds for both sides to strengthen their ties.
The EU is currently facing some unprecedented challenges some of which affect it seriously including terrorism and asylum seekers crises. On the other hand, it seems that the European Union is not capable of confronting these security challenges on its own, especially those which stem from the Middle East and since Iran has been able to play the role of a stabilizing actor in the region it seems that they can cooperate in some areas and Europe can count on the capabilities of Iran as a major power in the region.
However, the question is how Iran and the EU can cooperate in dealing with mutual issues:
- One major opportunity is that an integrated Europe can play a stronger role in Iran-U.S. challenges, because the EU as a powerful bloc has the potential to confront possible U.S. sanctions against the Iranian energy and especially oil industry.
- An independent Europe can be an influential partner for Iran in combating terrorism. Iran has a long history of fighting terror after the Islamic revolution and has always been a victim of terror. And since some European countries have been witnessing terrorist attacks carried out by ISIS in recent times, it can be a common ground for cooperation.
- The immigration crisis which many European countries are facing is another major issue that has the potential to bring Iran and the EU together. Since Iran has a stabilizing role in the region it can help enforce peace in Syria and also reconstruct the ruins of war. As a result, the enormous number of people who are fleeing from war will prefer to stay in their homeland instead of going through the traumatic process of emigration. This would help alleviate the troubles Europe is facing today.
Majid Yeganegi
