EU planning summit after Trump's tariff announcement over Greenland

EU Council President António Costa will convene a special summit following US President Donald Trump's new tariff threats in the Greenland dispute, with Thursday being considered a possible meeting date, an EU official said on Sunday.

While the date has not been definitively determined, it is clear that a meeting will take place.

Costa said that his consultations with member states on the recent tensions surrounding Greenland had made it clear that tariffs would undermine transatlantic relations and were incompatible with the EU-US trade agreement.

He said that the EU was prepared to defend itself against any form of coercion. At the same time, it wanted to continue to work constructively with the United States. There was a common transatlantic interest in peace and security in the Arctic, particularly through cooperation within NATO.

The meeting would involve EU heads of governments and states and comes after Trump announced on Saturday that he would impose a 10% tariff on goods from eight European countries from February 1, rising to 25% from June 1 if no resolution is reached to his satisfaction, which would be the "complete and total purchase" of Greenland.

Six of the eight countries - Germany, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Finland - are EU members while the United Kingdom and Norway are also on Trump's list.

All eight countries are members of the NATO defence alliance. NATO chief Mark Rutte is to meet with ministers from Greenland and Denmark on Monday over the dispute.

Greenland, a largely autonomous Arctic island, is part of the Kingdom of Denmark and is therefore also in NATO.

On Sunday the eight nations issued a joint statement warning of a "dangerous downward spiral" stemming from Trump's tariff announcement.