European Union (EU) diplomats yesterday agreed to accelerate efforts to dissuade US President Donald Trump from imposing tariffs on European allies, while preparing retaliatory measures in parallel.

Trump last week announced he would impose a new round of higher tariffs on several EU members starting February 1 as the latter did not support US demand to buy Greenland from Denmark.

EU diplomats have agreed to accelerate efforts to dissuade President Donald Trump from imposing tariffs on European allies, while preparing retaliatory measures.
European Council President Antonio Costa consulted members on the Greenland issue and said he would convene an extraordinary meeting of the Council in the coming days.
The bloc is committed to defend itself against any form of coercion, he said.

“NATO has been telling Denmark, for 20 years, that ‘you have to get the Russian threat away from Greenland’,” he wrote on Truth Social. “Unfortunately, Denmark has been unable to do anything about it. Now it is time, and it will be done!!!”

European Council President Antonio Costa consulted member states on the latest tensions over Greenland and issued a statement saying such tariffs would undermine trans-Atlantic relations and are incompatible with the EU-US trade agreement. He reconfirmed the bloc’s strong commitment to defend it against any form of coercion.

Expressing the bloc’s readiness to continue engaging constructively with the United States on all issues of common interest, he said he would convene an extraordinary meeting of the Council in the coming days.

“Europe will not be blackmailed,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a statement.

An option being reportedly considered is a package of tariffs on €93 billion worth of US imports that could automatically take effect on February 6 following the expiry of a six-month pause.

Another involves deploying the Anti-Coercion Instrument (ACI), a never-used tool that could restrict access to public tenders, investments or banking activity and limit trade in services, including digital services, where the United States runs a surplus with the bloc.

After speaking to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen asserted EU commitment to upholding the sovereignty of Greenland and Denmark and posted on X: “We will always protect our strategic economic and security interests”.

“We will face these challenges to our European solidarity with steadiness and resolve,” she said.

“No intimidation or threat will influence us—whether in Ukraine, in Greenland or elsewhere in the world,” Macron wrote on X. “Tariff threats are unacceptable and have no place in this context. Europeans will respond in a united and coordinated manner if they are confirmed,” he wrote.

“We will not allow ourselves to be blackmailed,” said Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.

Fibre2Fashion (DS)