Commission President Ursula von der Leyen participated in an informal European Council meeting this Thursday, in which EU Leaders gathered to discuss the recent developments in transatlantic relations, their implications for the European Union, and coordinate on the way forward. The Leaders mainly discussed Greenland and Arctic security as well as coordination on Ukraine, and the need to strengthen the EUs strategic autonomy.
Following President Trumps announcement that there would be no new US tariffs on Europe, leaders commended the European response in recent days, which was firm, non-escalatory, and demonstrated unity and determination in light of tariff threats. President von der Leyen stressed: “Tonight, we drew the lessons of our collective strategy. (…) To sum up, we followed four key principles. Firmness, outreach, preparedness and unity and it was effective. Going forward, we should maintain this very same approach.”
President von der Leyen underlined two key geostrategic issues of strong relevance to European security: Greenland and Ukraine.
On Greenland, she underlined the EUs solidarity with Greenland and with the Kingdom of Denmark and insisted on the EUs engagement in the Arctic, recalling the key actions undertaken in the last few years by the EU. Two years ago, the President of the Commission already visited Greenland on the occasion of the opening of an EU office in Nuuk. Last year, an agreement focused on investments in clean energy, critical raw material and digital connectivity was launched. Additionally, the Commission has proposed to double its financial support in the next long-term EU budget. Further, the President added the EU intended to deepen cooperation with the US and all partners on Arctic security, she detailed: “In particular, I believe we should use our defence spending surge on Arctic-ready equipment, a European Ice Breaker, for instance. And we should strengthen our security and defence arrangements with partners, such as the UK, Canada, Norway, Iceland and others. This has become a real geopolitical necessity.”
Turning to Ukraine, President von der Leyen recalled that the EU has been doubling down on its support to Ukraine to help the country face the harsh winter. She specified: “As winter has taken grip of the country, Russia is doubling down on vile attacks. We are doubling down on our support for Ukraine. This week we are deploying 447 emergency generators worth €3.7 million to restore power to hospitals, shelters and critical services.” This comes on top of the support loan of up to €90 billion that was announced last December following the European Council.
President von der Leyen also discussed the ongoing work on the security and prosperity aspects of the peace talks, underlining that the Paris meeting of the Coalition of the Willing had brought good progress on the security guarantees and that the EU was now close to an agreement with the US and Ukraine on a single unified Prosperity framework. This Prosperity framework looks at how Ukraines prosperity can be boosted at the moment a ceasefire is achieved and it is articulated around five key pillars: increasing productivity through business-friendly reforms and greater market competition, accelerate Ukraines integration into the EU Single Market through reforms in key economic sectors, significantly scaling up investments, stronger donor coordination, and finally fundamental reforms to reinforce rule of law and step-up anti-corruption efforts.
The President of the Commission said that there are existing structures that can be used to support those efforts, such as the Ukraine Investment Platform and the Ukraine Donor Platform, which brings together G7 countries, the European Commission, Ukraine and other partners. President von der Leyen further highlighted: “This agreement on the Prosperity Framework is a very important milestone. As I said, we are almost done. We are actively preparing Ukraines future as a modern, sovereign and free country. This is a strong signal to our brave neighbour and partner in difficult times.”
Leaders are set to meet on February 12 for a Leaders retreat, where they will pursue those topics and continue discussing strategic independence further.
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