As the US-Israel war against Iran is well into its second week, with no sign of ending, it is having ever wider global ripple effects. Beyond severe consequences for the world economy, the political and diplomatic fallout has also had a significant impact on Europe.

Europe is being forced to address the consequences of two wars of choice that are not of its making: the Trump-Netanyahu war against Iran and Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine. The European Union is increasingly straining to maintain unity as its institutions and member states struggle to align their interests confronted by such an unprecedented situation.

Divisions at the top of the EU institutions are increasingly playing out in the open. The EU is drawn between trying to maintain at least a minimum of transatlantic cohesion to keep the US on side in its confrontation with Russia, and its defence of an equally minimal pretence that international law still matters.

The result is mixed messaging on the US-Israeli war against Iran. Commission president Ursula von der Leyen was first clearly at odds with the EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, before being contradicted by the commission’s executive vice-president Teresa Ribera and EU council president António Costa.

Such public spats between top EU officials are highly unusual. In fact, one of the least expected and most remarkable developments over the past four years since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has been the extent to which the European Union has changed and yet remained broadly united.

The EU’s........

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