European Sanctions against Iran: Impacts and Effectiveness

The European sanctions regime against Iran came into force in 2012 and soon turned into a yardstick for evaluation of the European Union foreign policy. The Europeans demonstrated their determination in playing a more decisive role in the Middle East through impositions of sanctions on Iran. The present article aims to study the impact of sanctions on the European Union as well as its impacts on Iran. The main questions are about the effectiveness and impacts of sanctions and the future scenarios after their lifting. The hypothesis is that imposition of sanctions is quite consequential for both appliers of sanctions (European countries) and their subject (Iran). To study the consequences of sanctions, impacts have to be distinguished from effectiveness. For the appliers it is the impacts that should be studied. What concerns Iran as the subject of sanctions is their effectiveness. The costs of imposed sanctions on Iran have been significant for both Iran and European Union. This article approaches the issue of Iran’s sanctions from the International Regimes theory perspective.