The emergency summit was announced on January 19 on behalf of European Council President António Costa.
Brussels was shocked by Trump’s imposition of additional duties. It happened instantly as soon as the militaries of a number of European countries landed in Greenland. Despite the fact that these were extremely small groups (up to a maximum of 15 men per country), the American president showed that he would not tolerate any attempt to prevent him from taking control of Greenland.
Experts already recognize that the introduction of new duties by Trump will be quite a painful blow to the economies of the countries against which they are imposed (the U.S. announced that they will come into force on February 1). Especially for Germany.
The emergency summit is called to find a “collective response” to Trump’s duties. But the EU leaders are unlikely to achieve consensus. The situation is aggravated by the fact that the duties are imposed not against all EU countries, but only against eight. The other 20 countries are not all ready to “suffer for the company”. Therefore, what will be the decision at the summit on January 22 is still a big question.
European Commissioner for Economy Valdis Dombrovskis said on the eve of the meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels, which will precede the summit of the heads of state, that it is “not excluded” that the EU will impose retaliatory duties.
A spokesman for the European Commission confirmed for Deutsche Welle that, theoretically, special EU tariffs on U.S. goods totaling 93 billion euros could come into force as early as February 7. These duties were prepared back in the framework of the tariff dispute with the United States in 2025. In this case, European countermeasures will affect a wide range of American goods, including airplanes, cars, beef, whiskey and citrus fruits.
In addition, it became known that the transatlantic trade agreement between the EU and the US will not be ratified by the European Parliament after Trump’s economic threats. The agreement provides for tariffs of 15% by the United States on imports from the EU in exchange for the European community’s refusal of duties on American exports.
The most radical measure against Donald Trump’s threats was proposed by representatives of the Green Party in the German Bundestag. The head of the faction, Katharina Drege, said on the air of the ZDF TV channel that the European Union should work out the issue of refusing to import energy from the United States. In particular, European countries should stop buying liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States because of the active actions of the U.S. authorities with regard to Greenland.
“This dependence on US LNG imports is dangerous from both an economic and energy policy perspective,” Drege said.
