Relations with US have taken ‘big blow’, says EU foreign policy chief | European Union

Transatlantic relations “took a big blow last week”, the EU’s foreign policy chief said; bloc leaders met for an emergency summit after weeks of escalating threats from Donald Trump over Greenland were abruptly canceled by a vague agreement on Arctic security.

Summing up the mood, the EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said the EU experiences a lot of unpredictability: “One day it is like that; the next day everything can change again.”

He told reporters that relations between Europe and the United States “definitely took a big hit last week” but that Europeans “are not willing to throw away 80 years of good relations.”

Speaking after the meeting, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the EU’s unity and its “robust but non-escalatory” interaction with the United States had paid off.

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

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

Arriving at the summit, Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen praised the unity of the EU and “our willingness to defend ourselves”. He said NATO states support having a permanent presence in the Arctic region, including around Greenland.

Stressing repeatedly that Danish sovereignty was not up for discussion, she said the US and Denmark “have to work together respectfully without threatening each other”.

French President Emmanuel Macron, currently wearing the aviator glasses that attracted the world’s attention in Davos, said Europe must “remain extremely vigilant and be ready to use the tools at our disposal in case we find ourselves the target of threats again.”

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz welcomed Trump’s change of heart: “I am very grateful that President Trump has moved away from his original plans to seize Greenland, and I am also grateful that he has refrained from imposing additional tariffs on February 1.”

Many EU leaders have stressed their determination to retain the United States as an ally. “I still treat the United States as our closest friend,” Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda said, referring to the two US battalions stationed in his country.

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

But he said politics needs “trust and respect, not domination and certainly not coercion.”

Greenland, which left the EU in 1985, also insisted that its sovereignty be respected. Speaking in Nuuk, Greenland’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, said he did not know what was in the agreement but stressed that the largely self-governing region wanted a “peaceful dialogue” with the United States and that its sovereignty was unquestionable.

If the Greenlanders had to choose, he said: “We choose the Kingdom of Denmark, we choose the EU, we choose NATO.”

The summit follows Europe’s shocking ouster of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who accused the continent of moving slowly on key decisions in contrast to bold US actions against Iran and Venezuela. He said Europe needed a united armed forces to defend the continent. “Right now, NATO exists because of the belief that the United States will act… but what if it doesn’t?”

As of October 31, 2025, Europe had allocated 188.6 billion Euros to Ukraine since January 2022. Kiel Institute for World Economybut the decision-making process has generally been slow due to some countries’ hesitancy to release some military equipment.

Referring to the EU’s financial aid to Ukraine, including a 90 billion euro loan promised last month, von der Leyen said “actions speak louder than words.”

Meanwhile, the European Parliament signaled on Thursday it was ready to reconsider its decision to freeze approval of the EU-US trade deal, one of the bloc’s strongest responses yet to Trump’s tariff threats.

House lawmakers were expected to vote in February to approve 0% tariffs on many U.S. products, a key part of the trade deal signed at Trump’s Turnberry golf resort last summer, but paused the process on Wednesday in response to tariff threats.

European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said the European Parliament can now continue discussions on the EU-US trade deal after Trump reversed his tariff threat.

Earlier in the day, German Social Democrat MP Bernd Lange, chairman of the European Parliament’s trade committee, said his committee would revisit the issue next week and emphasized that the EU should remain cautious.

He wrote to [and] apply them as appropriate to the situation.”

In response to Trump’s tariff threats, the EU was discussing imposing tariffs on 93 billion euros worth of US goods, as well as deploying the anti-coercion tool, the bloc’s most powerful economic sanctions weapon, that would allow it to impose a wide range of economic penalties on US companies.

Even the EU’s most transatlantic-minded governments have said such a response might be necessary if tariffs continue.

European leaders had watched with increasing alarm as Trump insisted the United States seize Greenland, a move that threatened to split NATO and the broader Western alliance. European governments feared that failure to resist the US takeover of Greenland would legitimize a Chinese takeover of Taiwan or a Russian invasion of the Baltic states and collapse the post-1945 rules-based order.

Although that threat has diminished for now, European leaders have shared concerns about Trump’s proposed “peace board” out of concern that Trump is trying to create a rival to the UN.

European Council President António Costa, who chaired the meeting, said the EU had “serious doubts” about a number of elements, including the scope of Trump’s peace board, its management and its compatibility with the UN. He said the EU was ready to work with Trump on the Gaza peace plan, which envisions the peace board as an interim administration for the strip, an idea also endorsed by the UN.

The “peace board” launched in Davos on Thursday was initially part of Trump’s peace and reconstruction plan for Gaza, but is increasingly evolving into an organization with an expanding geopolitical role operating under his direct control. So far, Hungary and Bulgaria are the only EU member states to accept the invitation to join the “peace council”, while France, Sweden, and non-EU members Norway and the United Kingdom have rejected the invitation.