European leaders are hoping to prevent a trade war breaking out with the United States over Greenland, but are preparing contingency plans to push back on Donald Trump’s “blackmail” attempts, should high-stakes attempts to defuse tensions this week fail.
Efforts to engage the White House are being stepped up and several EU leaders are expected to discuss the crisis in transatlantic relations directly with Mr Trump in Davos this week on the margins of the World Economic Forum.
It is understood top officials close to European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen have been in contact with senior figures in the Trump administration, including Jared Kushner, to sound out the US president’s intentions.
Mr Trump has threatened to raise tariffs on trade from Denmark and several other European countries in the next fortnight if the US is not allowed to buy Greenland.
On Monday, it emerged that he has linked his drive to take control of Greenland to his failure to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
In a text message on Sunday to Norway’s prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Mr Trump said: “Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.”
A summit of the EU’s 27 national leaders on Thursday evening is expected to debate several responses to the tariff threat, such as levying counter tariffs on more than €90 billion worth of US trade.
It is understood French president Emmanuel Macron will propose the EU threatens to use emergency power – the anti-coercion instrument – to increase its negotiating leverage.
The defensive trade tool, known as the “big bazooka”, has never been used and would allow the bloc to partially curtail US companies’ ability to operate in the EU market.
The French government is seeking a tougher stance towards Mr Trump.
Europe is facing an “existential moment” in how it responds to the latest US threats, Tánaiste and Minister for Finance Simon Harris told EU counterparts in a Brussels meeting of finance ministers on Monday.
The Fine Gael leader stressed the Government’s view that the EU needed to push for dialogue with the White House.
German chancellor Friedrich Merz also moved to cool the more strident tone from Paris, criticising Mr Trump’s Greenland ambitions while warning about the unintended consequences of retaliatory tariffs.
“France is affected by the American tariffs to a different extent than we are and given this I understand the French government and the French president want to react a little more harshly than we do,” he said.
Mr Merz, who will meet Mr Trump on Wednesday in Davos, said the EU would work to adopt a “common position”.
The German leader said he would only back a solution that “protects German interests” – including its influential export and automobile sectors, already hit by previous tariffs from the Trump administration.
In a joint press conference earlier, the finance ministers of Germany and France said Europe would not allow itself to be “blackmailed” into handing over Greenland by the US.
Officials in the European Commission privately explored the possibility of putting tariffs on US services, such as the tech industry, as well as imported goods, during previous trade tensions last year, which may feature as another option in discussions.
Separately, Denmark and Greenland have proposed establishing a full Nato mission in the Arctic, in an effort to address concerns about Russia’s presence in the region, which Mr Trump claims is the reason the US needs to control Greenland, the semi-autonomous island that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark.
A ministerial meeting arranged at short notice by Taoiseach Micheál Martin expressed support for the integrity and rights of the people of Greenland.
Senior officials from the Department of Finance attended the meeting, which discussed the threats of extra tariffs Mr Trump has made against eight European countries.