Would Trump really go to war with Europe for Greenland?

Good morning. Three items for you today: I try to explain the chaos sparked by Donald Trump’s lust for Greenland, our climate correspondent reveals the spat between French and German business over sustainability regulations, and our competition correspondent reports on the European Commission getting fined for breaking its own rules.

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A month ago, EU leaders were wondering whether US troops would continue to protect Europe from invasion under Donald Trump’s presidency. Now they are wondering if US troops might be the ones invading.

Context: Trump, who will take control of the White House in 11 days, has refused to rule out using military force to seize Greenland if Denmark does not agree to sell it.

In 2019, when Trump first said he wanted to buy Greenland, he framed it as a smart real estate deal, which allowed Copenhagen to laugh it off. Now he’s back with a new focus on US defence priorities, and things seem more serious.

“We need Greenland for national security purposes,” Trump said, referring to the threat from Russian and Chinese ships. Our Nordic correspondent has written this excellent explainer on the island’s strategic value.

But it was Trump’s blithe remarks threatening military action against Denmark that sparked a flurry of calls between EU leaders and EU council president António Costa over the past 36 hours. Officials involved said the leaders shared mutual incredulity.

Olaf Scholz, German chancellor, drily remarked that during the calls “a certain incomprehension became clear regarding current comments from the US”.

Spokespeople for the European Commission yesterday declined to condemn Trump’s remarks, instead repeating hopeful rhetoric about forging a “strong partnership” with his administration. But they did confirm that the EU’s mutual defence pact would cover Greenland in the event of a hypothetical invasion.

Chart du jour: Valuable rock

Greenland’s rich mineral and oil deposits also make it an attractive prospect for potential investors — or invaders.

Redirecting the omnibus

French business has launched a counterattack against its German counterpart over the potential watering down of the EU’s sustainable reporting rules, writes Alice Hancock.

Context: After years of pressure from industry and capitals, the European Commission announced in October that it would present an “omnibus” regulation that would address the administrative burden facing companies from new rules governing environmental and social disclosures.

German industry, floundering amid economic gloom, high energy prices and competition from China, has been particularly vocal in calling for an easing of various sustainable finance laws.

On Monday, the powerful German business lobby group BDI said a “review” of the sustainable finance framework should involve “slimming down” corporate sustainability reporting rules and make the EU taxonomy to guide green investments “voluntary”.

Yesterday, French industry hit back.

In a letter to the commission the French business group C3D, which represents more than 400 chief sustainability officers of companies including Alstom, L’Oréal and Pernod Ricard, called on Brussels to “uphold” the ambition of the legislation, arguing that it was to “not only ensure a level playing field but also strengthen European sovereignty” that would “shape global norms”.

“A moratorium or rollback risks fostering a culture of delay rather than encouraging further adoption,” C3D wrote, before proposing a series of recommendations including introducing penalties for failures to comply with the rules and, for companies based outside the EU, linking reporting requirements with a permission to operate in the bloc.

The details of the omnibus legislation are expected to be announced in February. The commission did not reply to a request for comment.

Self-own

The EU broke its own rules on the transfer of personal data from the bloc to the US and now it has to pay for it, writes Javier Espinoza.

Context: Thomas Bindl, a German citizen, alleged the EU broke the rules when it sent his personal data to the US because it went against a 2020 ruling by the European Court of Justice that sought to avoid the risk of US spies accessing the data of EU citizens.

Brussels now has to pay €400 in compensation to Bindl, after the ECJ’s general court upheld his claim that his IP address was illegally sent to Facebook after registering for a European Commission event. The Luxembourg-based court said Brussels was responsible for the data transfer to the social media site and that it was in breach of the bloc’s data protection rules. 

“The commission takes note of the judgment and will carefully study the court’s judgment and its implications,” the commission said. The ruling can be appealed. 

What to watch today

1. Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte and EU chief diplomat Kaja Kallas attend a Ukraine Defence Contact Group meeting in Germany.

2. Meeting of foreign ministers from UK, US, France, Germany, Italy and EU chief diplomat Kallas on Syria, in Rome.

3. European parliament president Roberta Metsola meets Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo.

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