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# Letters — Issue 5
- URL: https://theroundabout.eu/letters-issue-5/
- Published: 2026-10-29T15:45:06.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-29T15:45:06.000Z
- Author: Aristidis Myrmidon
- Tags: Issue 5, Letters

*To the Editors of The Roundabout*

*Sir,*

*I write, as before, in a capacity I am not at liberty to disclose, having read your fourth issue’s investigation into the EU’s Blocking Statute with the attention it deserves and the scepticism it invites.*

*Your description of the Blocking Statute as having been “used twice” is, I fear, an oversimplification. The Statute was activated against US Cuba sanctions in 1996 and against US Iran sanctions in 2018\. It was not, in either case, a complete success. In the Iran case, several major European banks and companies complied with US sanctions regardless, calculating that the risk of losing access to the US financial system outweighed the risk of non-compliance with EU law. The Commission took no enforcement action against them. The Blocking Statute was, in those cases, a legal instrument with political teeth and no bite.*

*Your characterisation of the Statute as an “important achievement of unified EU action” relies on the Commission’s own documentation, which I would suggest is not a disinterested source. I have the relevant Council decisions. I am prepared to share them if your publication has the resources to receive them, which on the basis of previous correspondence I understand to be a matter of some uncertainty.*

*I would also observe that the “window for dialogue” offered by the High Representative is six months long, while the relevant US executive order has been in force since February 2025\. The window, as your investigation noted, is open. The question of what is on the other side of it has not been publicly examined. I have views on this matter.*

*Yours faithfully,* 
*Dr Ing Helmut Sachverständiger* 
*Bonn* 
*(formerly of the relevant committee, 1987-2019)*

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*We are grateful to Dr Ing Sachverständiger for his clarification, which enriches our understanding of the Blocking Statute’s limitations considerably more than it comforts us. His point about the Commission’s self-assessment as a disinterested source is noted. His point about the window is also noted. We look forward to his views on what is on the other side of it, resources permitting, and remind him that the relevant Council decisions, if transmitted at reasonable length, will be read with the attention they deserve.*