The European Parliament has stated that ‘business as usual’ is ‘impossible’ while the US is trying to seize Greenland
The European Parliament has stopped the approval of the EU’s significant trade and tariff deal with the US, citing US President Donald Trump’s “continuing and escalating threats” against the bloc, including his plan to annex Greenland.
“Due to the continuing and escalating threats, including tariff threats, against Greenland and Denmark, and their European allies, we have no choice but to suspend work” on the deal, Bernd Lange, who heads the legislature’s international trade committee, said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Our sovereignty and territorial integrity are at risk,” he wrote in a separate post on X. “Business as usual is impossible”
Signed by Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last July, the deal sets a cap on tariffs for most EU goods entering the US at 15%, a lower rate than that imposed on most of the US’s trading partners. In return, the EU removed tariffs on some American agricultural and industrial imports, and agreed to invest $600 billion in the US and buy $750 billion worth of American energy.
The deal was widely regarded as being in favor of the US, and European lawmakers were getting ready to vote on amendments to the agreement in the upcoming days. However, the recent disagreement between Washington and Brussels over Greenland has cast doubt on its ratification.
Trump announced an extra 10% tariff last week on eight European NATO countries that oppose his planned takeover of Greenland. The US president warned that this penalty would rise to 25% if a deal regarding the territory – which already has a US military base – is not reached by June.
Denmark has repeatedly said that it will not give up control of Greenland, but Trump has promised to seize the island “the easy way” or “the hard way.” In his speech at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos on Wednesday, the US president described Greenland as “our territory,” and demanded that Denmark start “immediate negotiations” to hand it over to Washington.