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European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is visiting Greenland on Sunday and Monday as the bloc signals its continued support for the island amid US President Donald Trump’s repeated calls for the United States to acquire it.
As part of the visit, von der Leyen is expected to sign a joint declaration between the EU and the Danish autonomous territory on Monday.
Since his return to the White House in January last year, Trump has claimed the US needs to take control of Greenland for its “national security,” arguing that either China or Russia would otherwise seize the island.
Von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa issued a joint statement in January in which they highlighted the importance of “territorial integrity and sovereignty” and said the EU stood “in full solidarity with Denmark and the people of Greenland.”
Speaking at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos this year, von der Leyen said the EU was also working on a “massive European investment surge” in Greenland in a bid to ramp up Arctic security.
The Commission has proposed allocating €530 million to Greenland under its budget for the 2028–2034 period, which it said reflected its “growing geostrategic importance in the Arctic.”
The Financial Times reported that von der Leyen is set to announce an additional €200 million in funding for the island during her visit.
In May, Trump’s special envoy to Greenland, Jeff Landry, said it was time the US “puts its footprint back” on the territory.
Landry, who is also the governor of Louisiana, made the comments during a trip to the territory, his first since his appointment to the special envoy role in December 2025.
Speaking from Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, Landry told Agence France-Presse: “I think that you’re seeing the president talk about increasing national security operations and repopulating certain bases in Greenland.”
“Everyone that I’ve talked to in Greenland would love to see the US repopulate those bases,” he continued, adding that the territory “needs the US.”
In January, the leaders of five political parties in Greenland’s parliament released a joint statement with a clear message to the US.
“We do not want to be Americans, we do not want to be Danes; we want to be Greenlanders,” it read.
The US is reported to have had 17 military facilities and more than 10,000 troops on Greenland at the height of the Cold War. It currently operates just one base on the island, the Pituffik Space Base – the US Department of Defense’s northernmost installation.
Pituffik is used for missile warning, missile defense and space surveillance missions, according to the US Space Force.
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