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US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump had European Union leaders scrambling this week in response to his mounting threats over Greenland, only to take his foot off the accelerator at the final moment.
Last night, as the leaders of the EU’s 27 member states made their way into the emergency meeting that had been called to address the crisis, expressions were gloomy, perhaps in part because the whole affair ended up feeling somewhat pointless.
While a lot of the leaders may have privately thought this, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico took his grievances public, sharing a video from his plane on the way to the meeting.
In it, he dubbed last night “simply a super expensive dinner in Brussels”.
Indeed, officials in the European Council were keen to stress that the events of this week would not become the norm. Council President António Costa would not be making a habit of rushing to convene a meeting every time there is a threat from the United States.
But while the stakes of tonight’s meeting were greatly lowered after Trump said he would not be using military force to “take” Greenland, European leaders still opted to meet, debrief and plan for the next Trump-related crisis.
What was expected to be a short dinner ended up stretching into the early hours, a reflection of the scale of the issues the EU still had to deal with in the face of the most significant crises in the transatlantic relationship in years.
As well as discussing tariffs and Greenland, many of the European leaders had signalled on the way into the meeting that they were eager to also discuss an EU response to Donald Trump’s so-called ‘Board of Peace‘.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin somewhat underplayed the state of affairs when he stopped to speak to journalists on the red carpet before the summit dinner.
It’s been a “challenging few weeks in respect of the Greenland situation”, the Taoiseach said.
“But I welcome the developments of yesterday. First of all, the announcement by President Trump that force would not be used in respect of Greenland. And secondly, that the threat of tariffs on certain EU member states were to be lifted.”
French President Emmanuel Macron (and yes, he was still in his Davos shades) was blunter in his assessment, saying he welcomed Trump’s climbdown, “even though, we remain vigilant.”
So what next for the EU-US relationship?
On the trade front, the first thing is that despite anger at Trump, the ratification process for the US trade deal that was agreed in the summer will now go ahead in the coming days as initially planned.
EU member states (Ireland and our open economy chief among them) will be breathing a sigh of relief that we did not have to invoke the trade ‘bazooka’, aka the Anti-Coercion Instrument.
Never before used, the tool has been described as the “nuclear option”, allowing the EU to, among other things, restrict imports and exports to the bloc entirely.
Just how significant the ‘bazooka’ was in Trump’s climbdown is hard to say, but no doubt the counter-threat did have some effect.
What was likely much more impactful was the engagement between Trump and Nato chief Mark Rutte.
Going into last night’s meeting, much confusion remained over what exactly was included in the framework deal agreed by the pair in relation to Greenland, with Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen saying he himself did not know.
It’s understood that European Council President António Costa briefed EU leaders on the details of the deal last night after he was briefed by Rutte.
In a late-night press conference after the EU leaders’ meeting, Costa reaffirmed that only Greenland and Denmark can decide on matters concerning Greenland and Denmark.
“Looking ahead, we remain ready to engage constructively with the United States on all issues of common interest, including on creating the conditions for a just and lasting peace in Ukraine,” Costa said.
Addressing Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’, Costa said the EU has “serious doubts” about the scope of the organisation and its compatibility with the United Nations.
Costa’s comments at the closing press conference gave no hint of the panic that ran through EU institutions this week.
But despite his calm demeanour, there is no doubt that the EU will not want to relive another week like this.
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