Forty years after leaving the EEA, Greenland is seeking closer ties with the EU again. Following pressure from Trump on the island, the government in Nuuk wants to forge closer ties with Europe and hopes for more financial support. Greenland does not want to join the EU, but it does want more intensive cooperation. The EU recently more than doubled its financial support for Greenland. Between 2028 and 2034, 530 million euros are to be transferred to Greenland.
Greenland and the EU should work more closely together, says the Prime Minister of Greenland, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, at a press conference in the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Jens-Frederik Nielsen said: “We are very grateful for the support we are receiving. The last six to eight months have been a little strange, to say the least.
Jens-Frederik Nielsen: ‘We would like to see more cooperation and a strategic partnership with the EU. Good, strong cooperation with the EU and EU countries can benefit both sides. We have a lot to offer, and that gives us great opportunities for development.’ He would like to see Greenland strengthen its partnerships with ‘like-minded’ countries and international organisations.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen expressed a similarly positive view after a meeting with Nielsen. ‘Europe and Greenland will always be trustworthy and reliable partners for each other. We want to further deepen our cooperation,’ she said on Platform X.
The EU is particularly interested in cooperation in the field of energy and raw materials, where Greenland has a number of critical raw materials that the EU Commission has identified. These critical raw materials are crucial for the green transition, as they are used in electric car batteries, among other things.
Economic and geopolitical reasons are decisive for Greenland’s rapprochement with the EU. Trump wants Greenland to become an American island after a takeover, but a large part of the Greenlandic population rejects this. Greenland is therefore seeking support from European partners.
At the summit in Copenhagen, Nielsen did not rule out the possibility of respectful cooperation with the US under certain conditions.
Heiner Kubny, PolarJournal