Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: A day after French President Emmanuel Macron’s assertion that Europe “will not give in to bullies,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday that the EU is “fully prepared” to hit back the USA over President Donald Trump’s Greenland tariffs, the media reported.
“Europe prefers dialogue and solutions — but we are fully prepared to act, if necessary, with unity, urgency and determination.”
The EU is ready to strike back at Trump over his tariff threats as he seeks to take Greenland, she said, toughening her rhetoric against the US President.
“We are at a crossroads,” said von der Leyen, speaking before the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday. “Europe prefers dialogue and solutions — but we are fully prepared to act, if necessary, with unity, urgency and determination.”
She also argued that there was no returning to the World Order that Europe spent decades building with US cooperation.
“The shift in the international order is not only seismic — but it is permanent,” she said. “We now live in a world defined by raw power.”
“While many of us may not like it,” the top EU executive added, “we must deal with the world as it is now.”
Von der Leyen’s speech indicated a shift toward a more forceful approach to Trump’s persistent menacing of Europe. It comes as the EU chief faces pressure to push back harder against Trump’s alleged global aggression.
The US President is expected to address the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, later on Wednesday, with EU capitals looking for any signal about whether he intends to deescalate his pledge to slap fresh tariffs on Europe.
Furious at Europe sending a few dozen “troops” to symbolically defend Greenland against a heavier contingent of America, Trump on Saturday last week announced a 10 percent tariff on goods from eight European countries beginning February 1, and rising to 25 percent in June, unless he is allowed to buy Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ally and EU member. EU leaders will hold an emergency meeting in Brussels on Thursday to explore potential retaliatory measures.
Arctic Security
Von der Leyen said that the additional tariffs would be “simply wrong,” given the EU and the US shared the same strategic assessment on Arctic security.
“If we are now plunging into a dangerous downward spiral between allies, this would only embolden the very adversaries we are both so committed to keeping out of our strategic landscape,” she added, echoing a speech she gave Tuesday to the Davos audience.
Already, the European Parliament is set to delay a vote on the ratification of a large EU-US trade deal over the Greenland crisis.
Von der Leyen reiterated that the bloc is also preparing to back Greenland with a “massive European investment surge in the semi-autonomous island, to support the local economy and infrastructure.”
Besides, she said, the EU will “strengthen our security arrangements” with the UK, Canada, Norway and Iceland, and will work on a new security strategy in the coming months.
“I believe Europe itself needs to reassess its wider security strategy,” she said. “The world has changed so fast, and Europe now has to change with it.”
Her assertions came a day after French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that Europe would not “give in to bullies” or be intimidated, in a scathing criticism of US President Donald Trump’s threat to impose steep tariffs if Europe does not let him take over Greenland.
While other European leaders have tried to keep a measured tone to prevent the trans-Atlantic dispute from escalating, the French leader came out swinging.
France, and Europe, will not “passively accept the law of the strongest,” President Macron said at the WEF in Davos, adding that doing otherwise would lead to their “vassalization.”
Instead, he said, Europe will continue to stand up for territorial sovereignty and the rule of law, despite what he called a shift towards a world without rules. That could include the EU responding with its own steep trade sanctions.
No To Bullies
“We do prefer respect to bullying,” Macron said. “And we do prefer rule of law to brutality.”
His speech came after Trump threatened huge tariffs against French wine and champagne and posted private messages from Macron, an unusual breach of diplomatic discretion.
Trump had already vowed on Saturday to implement a wave of increasing tariffs from February 1 on several European allies, including France, until the US is allowed to acquire Greenland, a step major EU states decried as blackmail.
Washington’s “endless accumulation” of new tariffs is “fundamentally unacceptable,” Macron said in Davos, “even more so when they are used as leverage against territorial sovereignty.”
EU’s Response
EU leaders decided over the last weekend to convene in Brussels on Thursday evening for an emergency summit on Greenland.
Tariffs on 93 billion euros worth of US goods, which the EU set aside when Trump agreed a trade deal with the bloc last summer, could snap into place on February 6.
Macron has pushed for the EU also to consider the first use of its Anti-Coercion Instrument, informally known as the “trade bazooka,” which could limit US access to public tenders or restrict trade in services such as technology platforms. He said on Tuesday it was “crazy” it had gone that far.
US-EU Tensions
Trump’s relationship with Europe as a whole has deeply soured over his push to wrest sovereignty over the Arctic island from fellow NATO member Denmark, rattling European industry and sending shockwaves through financial markets.
He also took offence at France’s reluctance to join a “Board of Peace,” to resolve the Gaza crisis, a new international organisation that Trump leads. Paris has voiced concern over its impact on the role of the United Nations.
When asked about Macron’s stance on the Board of Peace, Trump said late on Monday: “I’ll put a 200 percent tariff on his wines and champagnes, and he’ll join, but he doesn’t have to join.”
A few hours later, the US President published on his Truth Social account a screenshot of a private exchange with Macron.
In the exchange, Macron told Trump “I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland,” and offered to host a G7 meeting inviting Russia and others. Neither Trump nor the French source disclosed the date of the messages.
Macron also confirmed he had no plans to extend his stay in Davos to Wednesday, when Trump arrives in the Swiss mountain resort town.
“I don’t have to change my schedule,” he said, adding that it had long been planned he would leave in the evening.
Macron, who will leave office in mid-2027, has been France’s President since 2017. His relationship with the US President has had ups and downs since Trump’s first term, with Macron alternating between flattery and tougher rhetoric.
French officials have long defended Macron’s efforts to engage directly with Trump, saying the two men often have impromptu calls and exchange texts outside official diplomatic channels.
Officials close to Macron said he was being singled out by Trump because he was standing up for ‘democratic principles.’
“By leading the resistance, France becomes a target,” Pieyre-Alexandre Langlade, a lawmaker in Macron’s camp, was quoted as saying.