The European Parliament has halted work on legislation needed to implement parts of a planned trade deal between the European Union and the United States, citing President Donald Trump’s tariff threats against several EU countries opposing his Greenland takeover bid as an attack on EU member states’ sovereignty.
Bernd Lange, chair of the European Parliament’s International Trade Committee and the standing rapporteur for the United States, said in a Jan. 21 statement that lawmakers had been preparing to negotiate two “Turnberry” legislative proposals with EU governments, but would suspend work until Washington abandons what he called escalating threats and returns to cooperation.
“By threatening the territorial integrity and sovereignty of an EU member state and by using tariffs as a coercive instrument, the US is undermining the stability and predictability of EU-US trade relations,” Lange said.
The decision follows Trump’s threat to impose new tariffs on goods from a handful of European countries in an effort to pressure them into backing his push for American control of Greenland, an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark.
Trump has said the United States needs Greenland for national security reasons and that a U.S. acquisition of the Arctic island is crucial to countering potential threats from Russia and China.
European leaders have called Trump’s tariff threats over Greenland unacceptable and previously signaled they would be seen as “incompatible” with the EU–U.S. trade agreement.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
