Sealskin?
The question seemed to catch Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, slightly off guard as she stood side by side with Greenland’s Prime Minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, and Denmark’s Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, at a news conference in Nuuk on Monday afternoon.
Might the European Union (EU) be willing to lift its long-standing ban on importing sealskins – something it is rumored the United States is considering in order to win Greenlanders’ favor?
The answer never came, but what was clear was that America’s interest in Greenland hung over the three leaders like an inflated elephant throughout the news conference.
Ursula von der Leyen reiterated that the European Union stands firmly with Denmark and Greenland, and that territorial integrity is inviolable, as she has said so many times before. And both Mette Frederiksen and Jens-Frederik Nielsen thanked the EU for helping the kingdom withstand the pressure after Donald Trump, this spring, would not rule out a direct invasion to acquire Greenland.
»The EU has proved not only to be an important partner, but also a loyal and trustworthy friend«, Jens-Frederik Nielsen said, repeating the message he brought to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, where he delivered a speech last year:
»Greenland needs the EU, and the EU needs Greenland«.
A direct interest
It is the second time in just two years that Ursula von der Leyen has been to Greenland. The first was to open the EU’s new office in Nuuk in 2024. Before that, it was rare for a Commission president to set foot in Greenland. The former Prime Minister of Italy, Romano Prodi, and his wife were there in 2000 with former Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, (The Social Democratic Party), and in 2007 the former President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, traveled there with the former Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen (The Liberal Party) on a climate visit. That seems to be it.
But now Greenland’s importance has shot to the top, as Ursula von der Leyen also acknowledged at the news conference.
»It has become one of the places where the tectonic plates of geopolitics collide, so we in the EU have a direct interest in what happens here, and that is why we will also present an Arctic strategy this fall«, she promised.
Ursula von der Leyen was actually supposed to have been in Greenland earlier this year, but the trip was postponed because of Denmark’s election campaign. Now, officials had likely hoped to ride in on an Icelandic yes to reopening accession talks with the EU, and in doing so send a positive message to Greenland and other skeptical North Atlantic fishing nations about the blessings of the EU.
As is well known, Iceland voted no, and instead the Commission president was confronted with Sunday’s election victory by Alternative for Germany in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt, and what consequences the surging far right might have for the EU’s direction. This was a question Ursula von der Leyen brushed aside with the standard line that the EU does not interfere in national or local elections.
The EU as a harmless partner
For Greenland, the question of EU membership is not especially compelling right now, because it would mean becoming part of Denmark’s EU membership through the Kingdom of Denmark’s constitutional arrangement, according to Ulrik Pram Gad, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies who specializes in global security and Greenland.
»Then Greenland’s direct relationship with the EU would disappear, and instead you would be sitting on Denmark’s lap– and the Danish ministers’ – and nobody wants that«, he said.
Ulrik Pram Gad points out that Greenland has spent many years striving to be an attractive and independent voice in international politics, and that – in light of the crisis with the United States and Greenland’s growing geopolitical significance – it has now happened. Ursula von der Leyen’s visit underscored that further.
Especially because the Commission president brought an additional 200 million euros (about 1.5 billion Danish kroner) for Greenlanders, along with a cooperation agreement and a promise to double EU support for Greenland in the next seven-year EU budget, to a total of just under 4 billion kroner through 2034.
With the agreement, the EU and Greenland are expanding their cooperation– particularly on fisheries and education – to also include infrastructure, green energy and the extraction of raw materials, including two new concrete projects. But all the benefits and gains are to go to Greenland, Ursula von der Leyen assured them, pointing to a tangible result of the brand-new expanded satellite cooperation with the EU.
»That means that starting tomorrow, people in northern Greenland will get better and faster internet, and starting this fall, it will be noticeable on the east coast as well«.
Faster internet may sound like a small thing as Greenland’s geopolitical ties creak all around it, and the three leaders were, in fact, aboard the Danish inspection vessel ’Thetis’, anchored off the Greenlandic coast. And as Mette Frederiksen noted, 10 NATO countries are currently taking part in the joint Arctic Sentry exercise, which is intended to enhance security around Greenland and the High North.
Even so, the importance of the EU being able to play the role of a reliable partner – one that can support Greenland’s development in a less threatening way than either the United States or China – should not be underestimated. That is an advantage for both Greenland and Denmark, Ulrik Pram Gad argues.
»In that way, you can ease Greenland’s dependence on Denmark and make the ties of the realm less constricting. The EU also has an interest in Greenlandic society doing well and not becoming desperate and geopolitically unreliable«, he says.
For now, at least, a larger share of Greenland can get in touch with the outside world.
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