On 19 May 2024, as the whereabouts of the helicopter crash carrying the late Iranian President, Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and their entourage were still being determined in the foggy and complex terrain of northeastern Iran, the European Commissioner for Crisis Management and European Emergency Response Coordinator, Janez Lenarčič, announced that upon Iran’s request the EU activated the Copernicus rapid response mapping service to help with the search and rescue operation of the Iranian officials. What made the statement even more controversial was the hashtag #EUSolidarity that the Commissioner decided to use at the end of his announcement. Following a backlash for pronouncing European Union’s (EU) solidarity with Iranian regime officials, including a President widely nicknamed as the ‘Butcher of Tehran’, Lenarčič tried, without much success, to clarify his earlier statement, saying that the provision of the Copernicus system was not ‘an act of political support to any regime or establishment … [but] simply an expression of the most basic humanity.’ However, the Slovenian Commissioner is not the only one to raise eyebrows regarding the EU’s position on the Iranian regime which is known for its violent domestic repression, undermining stability in the region, producing weapons for Russian use against Ukraine and kidnapping, imprisoning and even killing European citizens. There is a clear lack of a coherent EU strategy to navigate the Middle East and the result is that few take it seriously.

The Pattern of #EUSolidarity and Copernicus’ Activation

In the past, the EU solidarity and activation of Copernicus were enacted to alleviate civilians suffering due to disasters—a far cry from assisting in the rescue mission of officials of a heavily sanctioned regime. Indeed, Lenarčič had often used the hashtag #EUSolidarity in the past in reference to various humanitarian crises, boasting that it epitomises the ‘EU’s commitment to helping the most vulnerable.’ Since May 2023, he used the hashtag for natural disasters, such as floods, wildfires and earthquakes, in Afghanistan, Brazil, the Caribbean, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Libya, Nepal, and Slovenia, and sending humanitarian aid to areas impacted by war — Armenia, Chad, Ethiopia, Gaza, Haiti, Sudan and Ukraine — as well as the evacuation of EU citizens from Niger.

Among others tasks, the Copernicus system ‘provides on-demand detailed information for selected emergency situations that arise from natural or man-made disasters anywhere in the world.’ Since the beginning of his mandate in late 2019, Lenarčič announced that the EU activated Copernicus in the following cases: earthquakes in Haiti, Morocco and Turkey; fires in Bolivia, Chile, Greece, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Ukraine; floods in Brazil, France, Italy, and Slovenia; mudflow in Ischia, Italy; volcanic eruption on Balearic Islands, in DRC and Philippines, and the port explosion in Beirut, Lebanon—all natural disasters with the exception of the latter. And, while it is reasonable to assume that Commissioner Lenarčič did not announce every #EUSolidarity action and Copernicus activation on his X account, the lists above clearly show a pattern of use exclusively for humanitarian disasters. Lenarčič will find it difficult to walk back his #EUSolidarity statement now—many people have already called for his resignation. It could also impact the European elections in June and complicate his possible reelection as EU Commissioner as he would have to be approved by the European Parliament, which has repeatedly called for a tougher EU approach to the Iranian regime in recent years. Although the new parliament can be expected to have a different composition after the June 2024 European elections, the sentiment is likely to carry on at least in its initial stages, particularly due to Iran’s military support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.

EU Thoughts Are With Whom?!

In the morning of 20 May, when Iranian officials confirmed the location of the helicopter crash and the deaths of everybody on board, including the President and Foreign Minister, several EU officials offered condolences to the families of the late Iranian officials. This came in a stark contrast to the celebrations by the Iranian diaspora across Europe and many Iranians inside the country, sparking another wave of criticism of the EU.

Charles Michel, the President of the European Council, wrote:

‘The EU expresses its sincere condolences for the death of President Raisi and Foreign Minister Abdollahian, as well as other members of their delegation and crew in a helicopter accident. Our thoughts go to the families.’

A few hours later, the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, wrote:

‘The European Union offers its condolences for the death of President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hussein Amir Abdollahian and other Iranian officials involved in the tragic helicopter crash on Sunday.’

However, Borrell’s X post omitted the following last sentence from his full statement:

‘The EU expresses its sympathies to the families of all the victims and to the Iranian citizens affected.’

And, while it could be argued that those were simply good-will diplomatic gestures, it could also be seen as part of the EU’s problematic messaging, which is often confusing and difficult to make sense of where the bloc stands. A number of people, particularly from among Iran’s diaspora, have expressed disappointment with those EU officials’ statements that are seen as speaking on behalf of the EU, while others have asked whether the EU would also offer condolences if the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, died.

This is a continuation of EU’s problematic track record when it comes to Iran. For instance, while many Western countries boycotted the inauguration of Ebrahim Raisi as President in 2021 over his human rights record and the fact that a few days earlier Iran was blamed for a drone attack on a tanker in the Arabian Sea that killed a British and a Romanian national, the EU dispatched Enrique Mora, the Secretary-General of the European External Action Service, to attend the ceremony on behalf of Josep Borrell, as part of diplomatic outreach to the new administration in a bid to save the JCPOA. During his tenure, Borrell was often at odds with the European Parliament on how to approach Iran — with Borrell being seen as too appeasing — culminating in a heated exchange at the last Plenary session of the current mandate in Strasbourg in April 2024.

And, although some officials, such as the German Greens Member of the European Parliament, Hannah Neumann, who is also the Chair of the Delegation for Relations with Arab Peninsula, sought to correct the record and instead expressed solidarity with the victims of Ebrahim Raisi and stressed to the people of Iran that Charles Michel ‘is speaking here as a private person not as @eucopresident and for sure not on behalf of Europeans,’ the damage was already done.

Picking Up the Pieces

Such conflicting statements could harm the EU’s goals to establish itself as a legitimate and reliable partner when it comes to enhancing stability in the Middle East and the Gulf, as well as matters of security and defence more broadly. With the increased security threats from actors such as Russia and Iran, the EU’s diplomatic messaging should be recalibrated accordingly to assert its interests and the willingness to defend them more firmly. Otherwise, the EU could risk fading into irrelevance and becoming a pawn for other actors in the new emerging international order.