Greenland is the wild card in Denmark’s Brussels reign
Donald Trump’s claims on the island nation could derail Copenhagen’s EU Council presidency at any time.
By JACOPO BARIGAZZI
Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images
Denmark is taking the helm of EU affairs. Just don’t tell Donald Trump.
That’s a joke being passed around in Brussels as the government in Copenhagen prepares to launch its presidency of the Council of the EU but looks to avoid a war of words — or worse, a war — with the US president over Greenland.
The fear among some diplomats and officials is that Trump could use the greater visibility of Denmark, which counts Greenland as a territory, to dial up his provocations. Copenhagen is trying to keep a low profile, instead talking up its EU agenda on migration, defense, security and climate.
Since taking office, Trump has made outlandish claims on Greenland, citing security reasons for aiming to gain control over the mineral-rich, self-ruling Danish territory — and even threatening repeatedly to use military force. “We’ll get Greenland. Yeah, 100 percent,” he told CNN as late as March.
Trump might resort to similar sound and fury “if the focus [on Denmark] is much higher and if Donald Trump really finds out what the [EU Council] presidency is,” said Rasmus Grand Berthelsen, senior director at Rasmussen Global, a political consultancy firm.
Renewed escalation on the issue would inadvertently draw in the European Union and its national member governments even more.
“Clearly, with the Danish presidency, the topic of Greenland sovereignty will naturally become even more prominent,” Brando Benifei, chair of the European Parliament Delegation for Relations with the United States, told POLITICO. But “it is already a red line for the European governments and for all the institutions: Any attack to Greenland freedoms is an attack to Europe.”
Denmark has been working hard to avoid further confrontation with the U.S. on the issue.
One Danish official with insight into the preparation of the presidency, granted anonymity to discuss internal thinking, said: “We do not expect the U.S. administration’s approach to Greenland to influence the Danish presidency of the Council. From the outset, we have received clear support from the EU institutions and Member States on this matter.
“Even in a situation where it could be of interest to discuss issues related to Greenland at a European level, this would be the prerogative of the European Council [of EU leaders] and the Foreign Affairs Council [gathering foreign ministers], which are not chaired by the rotating presidency of the Council,” the Danish official said.
Trump-splaining the EU Council
It’s one of the EU’s most famous and famously misunderstood quirks: There’s a Council of the EU (or EU Council), where different levels of national governments meet, as well as a European Council gathering heads of state and government, and finally a Council of Europe. All are distinct institutions; the latter isn’t even an EU organization.
For the U.S. president’s context: Denmark holds the six-month-long rotating presidency of the EU Council from July to December this year, succeeding Poland and preceding Cyprus. It organizes meetings of national government representatives from the technical level all the way up to ministerial meetings, among other tasks.
Denmark’s presidency kicks off just days after NATO’s June 24-25 summit in The Hague, where allies are expected to agree on a new defense spending target of 5 percent of national gross domestic product.
The Danish presidency will play a key role in negotiating legislative files that will determine how European Union members scale up their defenses.
But in Brussels, diplomats fear Trump’s threats to Greenland could pop up at any time and blow Copenhagen’s agenda wide open.
Trump’s Make America Great Again slogan “has become a geographical concept; he wants to go down in history as the man who has made America ‘greater’ — in geographical terms,” said an EU diplomat who was granted anonymity to speak freely.
Denmark’s plan for if that happens: Keep a cool head.
When U.S. Vice President JD Vance accused Denmark of underinvesting in Greenland, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen responded with a video in English saying: “Of course we are open to criticism … But let me be completely honest: We do not appreciate the tone in which it is being delivered.”
Denmark has even hired a lobbying company to help make its voice heard in the U.S. capital, according to press reports.
EU leaders meanwhile have expressed solidarity with Denmark. The most likely response to any new escalation would be a text agreed by European heads of state.
Embracing Greenland
For years, Denmark had an opt-out from participating in the EU’s common defense policy. But after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Danish citizens voted to remove the opt-outs.
That has made Denmark, together with more recent NATO members Sweden and Finland, part of a bloc of countries that are fully integrated into both the transatlantic alliance and the EU’s defense policy. All three are also close to the Baltics and strongly support Ukraine.
Trump’s threats have convinced Denmark’s socialist Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of the need for a strong EU, said one official with knowledge of Frederiksen’s thinking.
One question is whether the bloc will ever include Greenland itself. The island withdrew from a predecessor of the European Union, called the European Community, in 1985 after securing home rule from Denmark.
The Arctic country — the world’s largest island that isn’t a continent — is home to the Pituffik Space Base, a U.S.-operated installation in the northwest of Greenland. Pituffik is one of the most strategically important military sites in the world; if Russian President Vladimir Putin were to send missiles toward the U.S., their shortest route would be via the North Pole and Greenland.
One option would be to try to get Greenland back on board, said former Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis: “Invite Greenland back into the EU and I think that that would …. potentially change Trump’s narratives.”
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