Diplomats and politicians in Europe are holding urgent talks on how to respond to President Trump’s threats to impose 10% tariffs from 1 February on those countries that have deployed army personnel in Greenland.
The ambassadors of the EU’s 27 member states will meet later on Sunday in an emergency session after Trump announced tariffs on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Finland.
In a Truth Social post on Saturday, Trump said the tariffs would be levied “until such time as a Deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland”, a largely autonomous territory that is part of Denmark.
The threats to Greenland have cast a long shadow over NATO and thrown into doubt the EU-US trade deal that the bloc signed with Trump last August. The leader of the European parliament’s largest group, the centre-right European People’s party, Manfred Weber, tweeted on Saturday that “approval is not possible at this stage”, a conclusion Socialist and Green MEPs had already reached.
Related: Greenland for Sale? Understanding Trump’s Arctic Ambitions
Macron: Greenland threats will not influence us
Macron said on Saturday that Europe would not change course in its opposition to a US takeover of Greenland, declaring: “No intimidation or threat will influence us – neither in Ukraine, nor in Greenland, nor anywhere else in the world when we are confronted with such situations.”
In a joint statement, the EU leaders Ursula von der Leyen and António Costa said tariffs would “undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral”. The pair, who had been in Paraguay signing a trade deal with four South American countries in the Mercosur bloc, are understood to have been blindsided by Trump’s latest threats.
Even Trump’s ideological allies are distancing themselves. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told reporters in Seoul that she had personally informed the President that the sanctions are a “mistake,” while Finnish President Alexander Stubb, usually a bridge-builder with the White House, emphasized that Europe stands “united in support of Denmark and Greenland.”
Related: European Military Steps Up Presence in Greenland as Trump Eyes Island
