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As United States President Donald Trump addressed world leaders at the Davos World Economic Forum on Wednesday, former Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker chose Euronews’ flagship programme Europe Today to comment on US threats to take over Greenland.
Juncker called on Europeans to pursue diplomacy in resolving tensions with the US, stressing that “the European Union has cards in its hands.” “We can use all the instruments we have at our disposal that would deeply harm the US economy, and we should not refrain from using these tools if necessary,” Juncker said.
This was a reference to the anti-coercion instrument that some EU leaders, particularly French President Emmanuel Macron, are pushing to deploy against the US.
Nicknamed the “bazooka”, the anti-coercion instrument is a powerful tool adopted in 2023 that allows the EU to punish unfriendly countries for “economic blackmail” by limiting trade licences and shutting off access to the single market.
“Neo-colonial behaviour”
Juncker has experience dealing with the US president: in 2018, when a trade war was looming, he managed to de-escalate the conflict. But this week, he said that the context is now very different.
“I don’t think that he is, for the time being, in a very listening mode,” Juncker said of Trump. “It has become more and more difficult to talk to him in a friendly manner.”
He urged the EU to be more assertive towards the US, showing that “we are ready to defend European interests”. Asked what he would do if he were still president, he said that he would face the US president and explain “that the European Union cannot be subjected to any kind of neo-colonial behaviour.”
“The EU is not a slave of the United States of America. He knows that, but he doesn’t take this into account, at least not publicly.”
Juncker said that Trump’s one-hour-long speech was “less aggressive” than he had expected, but still “not reassuring”.
While the US president ruled out the possibility of a military attack on Greenland, he reaffirmed the need to take it over through negotiations. He also called it a “giant piece of ice” and repeatedly referred to it as “Iceland”.
Now an adviser to current Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Juncker told Euronews that Trump’s threats could lead to the end of the transatlantic alliance.
“If a NATO ally attacks or threatens another NATO ally, this inaugurates a process at the end of which we could witness a breakdown of NATO,” he said.
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