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

An opinion piece by Sandra Marco Colino warns that the European Union's hesitant stance on the US-Israeli war with Iran threatens to trigger a profound strategic and identity crisis for the bloc. While European public opinion strongly opposes the conflict, EU leadership, including foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas, has limited its criticism to condemning Iran without questioning the offensive's legality. Most strikingly, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has suggested the international rules-based order—previously invoked to condemn Russia's war on Ukraine—may now be a hindrance to EU geopolitical interests, marking a stark reversal.

This perceived hypocrisy and strategic defeatism, the author argues, risks catastrophic collateral damage. By sidelining public anti-war sentiment and appearing ready to abandon multilateral principles for short-term interests, Brussels is widening its democratic deficit with citizens. This fuels the fire for anti-EU factions within member states. Furthermore, as the war's inevitable economic fallout—soaring energy prices, inflation, and migration—hits Europe, social instability will intensify. The article concludes that by forfeiting its moral authority and commitment to a rules-based order, the EU jeopardizes its ability to form new global partnerships, reduce reliance on Washington, and withstand external coercion, potentially endangering the single market itself.