Denmark digs in to keep Greenland / MERCOSUR VOTE

 

Denmark digs in to keep Greenland

MERCOSUR VOTE 

 

By Nicholas Vinocur

January 9, 2026 7:00 am CET

https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/brussels-playbook/denmark-digs-in-to-keep-greenland/

Brussels Playbook

By NICHOLAS VINOCUR

 

GOOD FRIDAY MORNING. This is Nick Vinocur.

 

DRIVING THE DAY 

COPENHAGEN’S NEW GREENLAND STRATEGY: Denmark is ramping up a diplomatic offensive on both sides of the Atlantic to rally support from European Union countries and convince U.S. lawmakers that Copenhagen has no intention of giving up on Greenland.

 

Don’s offer: The push comes as U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is reportedly considering offering Greenlanders payments of $10,000 to $100,000 to accept American sovereignty over the island, according to Reuters.

 

Trump expanded on his determination to acquire the self-ruling Danish territory in an interview with The New York Times, arguing that “ownership” — as opposed to a lease or an expanded cooperation agreement — is “psychologically necessary for success” and “gives you things and elements that you can’t get by signing a document.”

 

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Pressed on the risk that his claim on Greenland could damage NATO, Trump acknowledged that “it may be a choice” for the U.S. between obtaining the Arctic territory and keeping the 76-year-old military alliance intact, according to the Times’ account of the conversation published on Thursday.

 

Lobbying on the Hill: With Trump digging in his heels, Denmark’s envoy to the U.S. Jesper Møller Sørensen and Greenland’s representative Jacob Isbosethsen spent Wednesday and Thursday lobbying lawmakers on Capitol Hill in the hope of building congressional opposition to a hostile takeover of Greenland.

 

Bipartisan approach: The pair met with a mix of Republican and Democratic House members and senators to stress that Greenland is not up for grabs, my colleague Jacob Wendler in Washington reports. Sørensen chronicled the meetings on his official account on X.

 

“I think it’s been made clear from our Danish friends and from our friends in Greenland that that future does not include a negotiation,” said Roger Wicker, chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee — one of the senior Republicans who have broken with the White House on the issue — after meeting the pair. “There’s no willingness on their part to negotiate for the purchase or the change in title to their land, which they’ve had for so long. That’s their prerogative and their right, and they’ve made that very clear to us.”

 

K-street allies: POLITICO has previously reported that Denmark hired Washington-based public relations firm Mercury Public Affairs, which is well-connected in Republican circles and the former professional home of Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles, to amplify its message in D.C.

 

Denmark is racing against the clock. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is due to meet Danish officials about the island’s fate next week, and Trump has shown no sign of changing his mind.

 

EU lawmakers are throwing their hats into the ring, with several senior MEPs warning they could block the implementation of the EU–U.S. trade deal unless Washington drops it rhetoric about annexing the Danish territory, Max Griera reports (more on that below).

 

Denmark is also amplifying its efforts closer to home. Copenhagen has put the Greenland issue on the agenda for a gathering of envoys in Coreper II today, EU diplomats told Zoya Sheftalovich and Jacopo Barigazzi.

 

The all-fronts push to change Trump’s mind marks a strategic shift for Copenhagen, Zoya reports. While Denmark previously avoided bringing up Greenland at the EU level to avoid inflaming tensions with the Trump administration, its strategy is now to make its case publicly and assertively, said a diplomat familiar with Copenhagen’s thinking.

 

Among other arguments, Denmark and the EU can point to their own financial contributions to Greenland — which amount to billions of euros over the past decade. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen unveiled a special funding package of 1.6 billion Danish krone, or €214 million, during a trip to Greenland in September, and the EU is set to more than double its financial outlay for Greenland to €530 million over the next seven-year budget starting in 2028.

 

The bottom line: It’s crunch time for Greenland. Copenhagen and its European friends want to convince Washington that cooperation is preferable to confrontation, but Trump isn’t budging. This is shaping up to be the biggest transatlantic clash since the American president returned to office. It could be a decisive one.

 

LISTEN UP: On this week’s EU Confidential podcast, host Sarah Wheaton is joined by Allison Hoffman, Eva Hartog, Bartosz Brzeziński and yours truly to unpack what Donald Trump’s moves in Venezuela reveal about the world he’s shaping — and the uncomfortable position they leave Europe in. We dig into Moscow’s humiliation (and the opportunities it may see in chaos), renewed U.S. pressure over Greenland, Europe’s mounting doubts about American security guarantees for Ukraine, and how Brussels is trying to navigate a world in which raw power seems to be back in fashion. Listen and subscribe here. 

 

MERCOSUR VOTE 

MERCOSUR HEADS TO VOTE AS FRANCE SAYS NON: French President Emmanuel Macron is holding his ground against the EU’s trade deal with South American countries, announcing in a social media post Thursday that Paris would oppose the Mercosur deal ahead of a vote today, Giorgio Leali reports. His comments came as French farmers protested the agreement by blockading roads into Paris.

 

But French opposition will be insufficient to derail the deal, which is likely to be approved by a majority of EU countries when ambassadors sit down to examine the latest version of “safeguards” at 11 a.m. A decision should come before 5 p.m., according to an EU diplomat who spoke to POLITICO’s Morning Trade. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is due to travel to Paraguay next week to sign the deal.

 

All eyes are now on Italy, whose support is vital to obtain a qualified majority of EU states in support of the agreement. Rome has edged closer to backing it after tighter safeguard language and political assurances aimed at farmers, but diplomats say it is still weighing how much domestic backlash it can absorb before signing on.

 

With Ireland shaping to vote against, Sweden spoke up to cheer the deal over the finish line. “After 25 years of negotiations, we look forward to voting yes on the Mercosur agreement tomorrow,” Foreign Trade Minister Benjamin Dousa told my colleague Tim Ross. “The agreement is more than just a trade agreement, it is a commitment to open, rules-based and outward-looking trade policy.”

 

Step back: As Playbook reported earlier this week, Mercosur is part of the EU’s arsenal to push back against Trump’s aggressive foreign policy. Several EU officials have cast the deal as a key geopolitical ploy to diversify the bloc’s trading relationships and steer away from dependency on Washington.

 

MORE TRADE AND GEOPOLITICS: Lawmakers from the Socialists and Democrats (S&D), Greens and Renew Europe are spearheading a bid to block the EU-U.S. trade agreement over tensions with the U.S. on Greenland, Max Griera writes in to report.

 

Clear as water: “I cannot imagine that in the current situation MEPs would vote for any trade measures benefiting the U.S.,” the Greens’ top trade lawmaker and chair of the Internal Market Committee Anna Cavazzini told POLITICO. “We should have such discussion, it’s inevitable,” added Brando Benifei, the S&D lawmaker who chairs Parliament’s delegation for relations with the U.S.

 

Reality check: The deal was deeply unpopular across party lines, but Ursula von der Leyen sold it as the price of keeping Trump engaged on European security. That argument is now unraveling.

 

“If we are to give it the green light, we need guarantees that the U.S. will stop its tariffs and its security-related threats,” said Renew’s trade heavyweight Karin Karlsbro. “The United States cannot take the EU’s support for the trade agreement for granted.”

 

The biggest political group, the European People’s Party (EPP), remains noncommittal. “These are separate matters,” said Željana Zovko, the group’s negotiator on the U.S. file. But the EPP’s top trade MEP, Jörgen Warborn, left the door ajar: While the EU “must preserve” the deal as a basis for stable transatlantic trade, he said “we are ready to act if necessary.”

 

Reality check: The EPP lacks the numbers to pass the deal with right-wing and far-right allies alone. A united front by the Socialists, Renew and the Greens would be enough to put the agreement on ice.