On 31 January, the Foreign Ministers of Germany, France, and UK (the 3 European signatories of the 2015 agreement) presented the details of a trade channel for European companies to bypass US sanctions in the trade with Iran in the margin of an informal meeting of the EU Foreign Ministers in Bucharest. The new mechanism, named INSTEX, will be used to keep open some line of trade between EU and Iran threatened by US sanctions (extended also to foreign companies trading with the Islamic Republic). HR/VP Mogherini welcomed this initiative declaring that “The instrument launched will provide economic operators with the necessary framework to pursue legitimate trade with Iran”.