EU Chief: Ties with US Suffer Major Blow

By Staff, Agencies

The EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said transatlantic relations “took a big blow” after an emergency summit following Donald Trump’s Greenland threats, later eased by a vague Arctic security deal.

Summing up the mood, Kallas said the EU faced much unpredictability: “One day, one way; the other day, again, everything could change.” She added that relations with the US “have definitely taken a big blow over the last week,” but Europeans were “not willing to junk 80 years of good relations.”

Speaking after the meeting, the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said that EU unity and engagement with the US in “a firm but non-escalatory manner” had paid off.

An emergency EU summit was hastily convened earlier this week after the US president announced he would impose 10% tariffs on eight European nations that resisted a US takeover of Greenland, an autonomous territory that is part of Denmark.

Although Trump abandoned his tariff threat on Wednesday, EU officials deemed the summit necessary to discuss the wider transatlantic relationship with a volatile and unpredictable US president.

Arriving at the summit, Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen praised EU unity and “our willingness to stand up for ourselves,” stressing that Danish sovereignty is not negotiable and that the US and Denmark “have to work together respectfully without threatening each other.”

The French president, Emmanuel Macron said Europe must “remain extremely vigilant” and be ready to act if targeted by threats again.

The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz welcomed Trump’s shift, saying he’s grateful the US backed off Greenland plans and new tariffs.

Several EU leaders stressed determination to maintain the US as an ally. “I still treat the United States as our closest friend,” the Lithuanian president, Gitanas Nauseda, said, referencing the two US battalions deployed in his country.

Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, another staunch transatlanticist, said: “Europe should be here absolutely united to protect our relations with our partners on the other side of the Atlantic, even if it is much more difficult than ever before.”

But he went on to say that politics needed “trust and respect … not domination and for sure not coercion”.

Greenland’s PM Jens-Frederik Nielsen stressed its sovereignty is non-negotiable, seeking “peaceful dialogue” with the US and affirming, “We choose the Kingdom of Denmark, we choose the EU, we choose NATO.”

The summit followed Ukraine’s president Vladimir Zelensky’s critique that Europe acted slowly compared with the US, warning “NATO exists thanks to the belief that the United States will act … but what if it doesn’t?” EU leaders noted €188.6bn in aid to Ukraine, with von der Leyen saying, “actions speak louder than words.”

Meanwhile the European Parliament said it could resume discussions on the EU-US trade deal after Trump reversed his tariff threats, following a temporary freeze on ratification.

Bernd Lange, head of the European Parliament’s trade committee, said the issue will be revisited next week, warning “there is no room for false security” and stressing the need to set clear boundaries and act against future threats.

The EU weighed duties on €93bn of US goods and its anti-coercion instrument as Trump’s Greenland plans alarmed European leaders, who feared it could embolden China or Russia and undermine the post-1945 rules-based order.

European leaders voiced concerns over Trump’s “board of peace,” questioning its scope and UN compatibility, while only Hungary and Bulgaria have agreed to join the Gaza-focused initiative.