The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, revealed on Monday plans for European Union investments totaling 200 million euros in Greenland and for strengthening ties with the Danish Arctic territory, which President Donald Trump has insisted should belong to the United States.
Von der Leyen arrived in Greenland on Sunday for a two-day visit, in order to demonstrate support for the governments of Greenland and Denmark, who had vehemently rejected Trump’s campaign to acquire the world’s largest island.
The head of the European Union’s executive body, comprised of 27 countries, stated that EU resources would focus on sectors such as essential minerals, satellite communications, and renewable energy in Greenland, a semi-autonomous region of the Kingdom of Denmark.
“The EU is in total solidarity with the Kingdom of Denmark and the people of Greenland,” von der Leyen said at a press conference. “We will continue to do so.”
Von der Leyen’s visit reflects the growing geopolitical importance of the Arctic for major powers such as the United States, Russia, China and Europe as melting ice opens up new sea routes, making the region’s mineral wealth more accessible.
TENTATIVA DE TRUMP DE ADQUIRIR A GROENLÂNDIA DESENCADEOU UMA CRISE
The President of the European Commission, who on Sunday took a boat ride through a fjord filled with ice chunks, had previously posted on X that she was impressed by Greenland’s stunning landscapes, but aware of the “visible scars of climate change.”
‘As the ice melts, a new reality is taking shape,’ she wrote.
The U.S. President, Trump, provoked a crisis in the relations between the United States and Europe and turbulence within the transatlantic NATO alliance this year, when he intensified his demands that the U.S. control Greenland, arguing that Denmark, also a NATO member, would not be able to defend it.
European authorities emphasized that Greenland is part of NATO territory, meaning that it is covered by the alliance’s mutual defense pact, and that the U.S. already has the right to increase its military presence there, under a long-standing treaty.
Tensions eased after Trump and the NATO head, Mark Rutte, agreed in Davos, in January, that the United States, Denmark and Greenland would begin negotiations to resolve their differences and that NATO would intensify its role in Arctic security.
However, trilateral negotiations have yet to yield an agreement, and at a NATO summit in Turkey in July, Trump reiterated his insistence that the United States should control Greenland.
“TECTONIC PLATES OF GEOPOLITICS COLLIDE”
Von der Leyen stated that the future of Greenland must be decided by the people of Greenland and Denmark, and by no one else.
“The Arctic has become one of the places where the tectonic plates of geopolitics collide. We have a direct stake in what happens here,” she said, adding that her Commission would present a new EU strategy for the Arctic in the coming months.
Although Denmark is a member of the EU, Greenland left the bloc in 1985. But its people, as Danish citizens, are also EU citizens.
The EU has long provided funding to Greenland, mainly to cover fishing rights and to support its educational system. The 200 million euro package represents not only a substantial increase in funding but also an expansion of the sectors that will receive EU resources, according to EU officials.
The Commission also proposed to more than double the EU’s funding for Greenland, from 225 million euros in the current seven-year budget to 530 million euros in the 2028 to 2034 period.
