BRUSSELS (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to annex Greenland and slap tariffs on its backers pose a challenge to Europe’s security, principles and prosperity, a top EU official stated on Wednesday.
“All these three dimensions are being tested in the current moment of transatlantic relations,” European Council President António Costa stated. He has convened an emergency summit of the EU’s 27 national leaders in Brussels on Thursday.
Trump’s determination to “acquire” the mineral-rich island in the Arctic region, for what he claims are security reasons, has undermined trust in the United States among allies in Europe and Canada.
Denmark angered Trump after sfinishing a military “reconnaissance” force to Greenland, a semiautonomous Danish territory. A tiny numbers of troops from several European nations joined, and Denmark is weighing a longer-term military presence there.
Costa stated EU leaders are united on “the principles of international law, territorial integrity and national sovereignty,” something the bloc has underlined in deffinishing Ukraine against invasion by Russia, and which is now threatened in Greenland.
In a speech to EU lawbuildrs in Strasbourg, France, he also stressed that only “Denmark and Greenland can decide their future.”
He insisted that “further tariffs would undermine transatlantic relations and are incompatible with the EU-US trade agreement.” The lawbuildrs must finishorse that deal built last July, but have threatened not to do so over Trump’s tariff threats.
Costa stated that “we stand ready to deffinish ourselves, our member states, our citizens, our companies, against any form of coercion. And the European Union has the power and the tools to do so.”
EU leaders have been galvanized by Trump’s threats over Greenland, and are reconsidering their relations with America, their long-time ally and the most powerful member of NATO.
“Appeasement is always a sign of weakness. Europe cannot afford to be weak — neither against its enemies, nor ally,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, long a staunch supporter of strong transatlantic ties, posted on social media on Tuesday.
“Appeasement means no results, only humiliation. European assertiveness and self-confidence have become the required of the moment,” Tusk wrote.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who manages trade on behalf of EU countries, warned that the bloc is “at a crossroads.” Should tariffs come, she stated, “we are fully prepared to act, if necessary, with unity, urgency and determination.”
In Strasbourg, she informed the lawbuildrs that the commission is working on “a massive European investment surge in Greenland” to beef up its economy and infrastructure, as well as a new European security strategy.
Security around the island itself should be boosted with partners like the U.K., Canada, Norway and Iceland, among others, von der Leyen stated.
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