EU shifts focus from Ukraine to Greenland as Trump tariff threat rocks Davos agenda

The Financial Times reported the information.

EU capitals are scrambling to respond after Trump vowed Saturday to impose an additional 10 percent tariff on six European countries, plus NATO allies Norway and the UK, as punishment for opposing his desire to acquire Greenland from Denmark. The threat has transformed what began as a bilateral dispute into what one senior EU diplomat described as the biggest threat to the NATO alliance in decades.

European delegations heading to the World Economic Forum in Davos are now tearing up their Ukraine briefing notes and replacing them with what officials call a "carrots and sticks" strategy—retaliatory options alongside offers to de-escalate. "How can you sit down across the table with this guy and discuss his security guarantees to Ukraine?" the diplomat said. "You can't trust him, unless you suspend reality."

EU ambassadors convened emergency discussions Sunday night, examining the possibility of imposing €93 billion worth of counter-tariffs already prepared last year, or deploying the Anti-Coercion Instrument to restrict American companies' access to the EU single market. While many participants supported putting retaliatory measures on the table as negotiation leverage, officials said the consensus was to hold off on implementation until diplomatic efforts have been exhausted.

A meeting of western national security advisers in Davos today, originally scheduled to focus on Ukraine, will now center on the Greenland crisis. Eurozone finance ministers gathering in Brussels will also address the escalating tensions, with France and Germany's ministers meeting first in Berlin this morning to coordinate their response.

European Council President António Costa has called an extraordinary summit of EU leaders for Thursday in Brussels, following the Davos meetings with Trump and U.S. officials.

Some European officials maintain cautious optimism, noting that Trump has made empty threats before. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who spoke with Trump yesterday, said he "was interested in listening" to a possible compromise. "Hold your horses (and your bazookas) until after Davos," said a second EU diplomat.

However, the crisis has shattered any remaining European illusions that appeasing the U.S. president was a viable strategy. Portugal's former central bank governor Mário Centeno, a contender to become the European Central Bank's next vice-president, warned that U.S. tariffs represent a "structural shock" for European companies and called for Brussels to coordinate monetary, fiscal and competition policies in response.

"We would have been much better without the tariffs," Centeno said, describing them as "a big challenge" while acknowledging a potential silver lining: European companies forced to compete under these conditions could become "more efficient and more competitive as time goes by: It's kind of a paradox."