The European Parliament has officially suspended the US trade deal ratification, directly responding to President Trump’s threat of 10% tariffs unless Europe backs his Greenland acquisition plans. This decision represents the most substantial material response Brussels has delivered against what multiple European leaders characterized as blackmail.
Trade committee head Bernd Lange made the EU’s position unambiguous, declaring that compromise remains impossible while threats concerning Greenland persist. The suspended agreement had promised American exporters unprecedented access to European markets with zero tariffs on numerous industrial goods.
Despite the trade deal suspension, the EU’s commitment to purchase $750 billion in American energy remains fully operational. Lange confirmed this energy arrangement exists independently from the tariff negotiations, demonstrating Brussels’ selective approach to the crisis.
The deteriorating diplomatic atmosphere became evident when Ursula von der Leyen revised her travel plans, returning to Brussels to prepare for an emergency summit.
Greenland’s status as a Danish territory has triggered European collective defense mechanisms, with the entire EU rallying to defend a member state’s territorial integrity. This response demonstrates that threats against any EU member’s territory activate bloc-wide solidarity, transforming what might otherwise be a bilateral US-Danish issue into a comprehensive EU-US confrontation. The collective nature of the response—from parliamentary suspension to potential €93 billion in counter-tariffs—shows that the EU functions as a genuine union when member state sovereignty faces external pressure.