EU member states are considering €93 billion retaliation against the United States over Greenland, the British newspaper Financial Times reported, citing European officials.
According to the publication, the second option for EU retaliation is to limit access to the single market for US companies. These plans are being developed ahead of meetings between European leaders and US President Donald Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos next week.
“If this continues and he resorts to purely mafia methods, then there are clear tools for retaliation“, a European diplomat told the newspaper. “At the same time, we want to publicly call for calm and give him a chance to back down.“ According to a source in the newspaper, Brussels intends to use a “carrot and stick“ approach.
The newspaper stressed that most EU countries want to resolve the dispute diplomatically before resorting to threats of retaliation.
“We need to de-escalate“, said another European diplomat.
Another source expressed hope that the possibility of retaliation by the EU would increase pressure on the Trump administration from members of Congress.
“The situation no longer leaves room for compromise because we cannot hand over Greenland,“ he said. “Rational Americans also know that he has just opened Pandora's box.“
As Trump announced earlier on Truth Social, the United States will begin imposing 10% import tariffs on the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Finland, France and Sweden, which will remain in effect until the countries reach an agreement “on the full and final acquisition“ of Greenland by Washington. According to Trump, this decision will take effect on February 1. As the president specified, the rate of these tariffs will increase to 25% on June 1.