EU leaders are looking for a way to keep Trump from invading the Danish territory.
EU leaders underlined that they will protect Greenland. | Emil Stach and Ritzau Scanpix/Getty Images
February 4, 2025 4:00 am CET
BRUSSELS — A Monday meeting among European leaders on beefing up defense in response to the threat from Russia ended up being largely about America.
Donald Trump is dominating the news by unleashing a trade war against China and threatening to do so (but then retreating) against Mexico and NATO ally Canada. He’s also refused to rule out the use of military force to seize Greenland, which is part of the Kingdom of Denmark.
When European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen summed up the summit, she started with the U.S., warning of what will happen if the Trump follows through on his threats to hit the EU with tariffs.
“When targeted, unfairly or arbitrarily, the European Union will respond firmly,” she said.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk also weighed in: “We have to do everything to avoid this totally unnecessary and stupid tariff war or trade war.”
EU leaders also underlined that they will protect Greenland.
Von der Leyen did stress that the partnership with the U.S. “remains our most consequential relationship,” and offered a carrot in response to Trump’s pressure to increase defense spending. The bloc is ready to look at its fiscal rules “to allow for a significant increase in defense spending,” she said.
That follows demands from countries like Italy, Poland and the Baltics, which want defense spending not to count toward the EU’s deficit and debt limits.
Surprisingly, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a leader of the fiscally conservative camp, said “there is a very widespread view that there must be more flexibility to finance the massive expansion of our defense investments, for example by borrowing.” However, he shot down calls for EU countries to issue joint debt to finance defense projects.
Tusk said that Scholz was “much more positive” about EU funding for projects like the Polish-Greek proposal on an air defense shield , as well as the Polish-led East Shield to build defenses along the bloc’s eastern flank.
Deep freeze
EU leaders made clear they aren’t budging Trump’s demand to take over Greenland.
European Council President António Costa said: “Preserving the territorial integrity in the Kingdom of Denmark, its sovereignty and inviolability of its borders is essential for all member states.”
NATO chief Mark Rutte, who joined the EU leaders for lunch, tried to defang the threat from the U.S. president by offering to let NATO secure the Arctic territory, potentially by stationing alliance troops there.
Trump’s reasons for wanting to grab Greenland have varied, from calls to expand the United States to getting access to key raw materials, but he has also indicated he is motivated by “national security,” without being more specific. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said Trump’s concern is driven by worries about China.
“It’s absolutely clear that Trump is right when it comes to the high north, that we have to do more,” Rutte said.
He added that Arctic allies like “Iceland and Norway and Finland and Sweden and Canada and even the U.S. itself … will work together with NATO to make sure that when it comes to the high north, collectively, we will do what is necessary.”
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, whose country has been at the center of a diplomatic storm ever since Trump made his claim on Greenland, echoed Rutte’s remarks calling for more collaboration.
“We have said very clearly to the Americans and to NATO that we think we should intensify our cooperation in the Arctic region in what we call the high north,” she told reporters on her way into the meeting at Brussels’ Palais d’Egmont.
Any NATO forces in Greenland would join the significant U.S. military presence that has been in Greenland for decades, with the agreement of Denmark.
Not in the plans
None of that was supposed to be on Monday’s agenda.
Costa called the informal gathering to address EU defense policy, including issues like finance and weapons production, and to give the European Commission pointers as it works on a long-term defense policy proposal.
Even without Trump in the mix that provided a lot of divisive topics.
Countries are split over how much money should be pumped into the EU’s defense spending, where that cash should come from, and if the bloc should favor a ‘Buy European’ policy on weapons that would exclude arms made outside the bloc in countries like the U.S. and South Korea.
“I will advocate against imposing restrictions on arms purchases,” said Tusk, whose country is spending billions on U.S., South Korean and other weapons systems as it rapidly builds up its military to deter the threat from Russia.
But French President Emmanuel Macron said: “We need to go further [to establish] a defense base, agree to invest more and have a European preference.”
There’s also the issue of how to rope in non-EU European countries like Norway and the U.K., whose Prime Minster Keir Starmer joined his EU counterparts for dinner — the first time a British leader has taken part in such a gathering since Brexit.
Von der Leyen said the bloc was “ready to discuss deeper cooperation, notably in security and defense” with London.