European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has promised a “substantial” package of European Union investment in Greenland after arriving in Nuuk on September 6 for a two-day visit. She gave no figure on arrival.
Von der Leyen was met at the airport by Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. “We are family,” she wrote on social media, adding that she had come back to make the partnership stronger.
The three leaders were due on September 7 to launch an enhanced satellite connectivity project at the premises of Tusass, the Greenlandic telecoms operator. They were also set to sign a renewed joint declaration on relations between the EU and Greenland, updating an arrangement dating from 2015, before appearing together before the press.
The Commission has not published a figure. The Financial Times has reported that about €200 million would be made available across 2026 and 2027 for critical raw materials, renewable energy, undersea cables, satellite links and data centres.
Greenland already receives €225 million from the EU budget for 2021-2027, most of it earmarked for education. The Commission has proposed more than doubling that allocation in the next budget.
Von der Leyen sailed on September 6 through the Nuuk fjord to Qoornoq, a former fishing settlement now visited by tourists. She wrote afterwards that the visible scars of climate change on the ice sheet had stayed with her as much as the landscape.
Nielsen said Greenland wanted to build on its “close friendship and good partnership” with the bloc. Von der Leyen was also due to meet Faroese Prime Minister Beinir Johannesen during the trip.
The visit follows months of pressure from US President Donald Trump, who has insisted the world’s largest island should belong to the United States. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers in June that Greenland was part of Denmark “for now”.
Trump threatened in January to put tariffs of 10 per cent on goods from eight European countries that had rallied behind Copenhagen, rising to 25 per cent unless they agreed to talks on the sale of the territory. He dropped his most aggressive demands later that month.
Von der Leyen told the World Economic Forum in Davos in January that the EU was preparing an investment surge in Greenland and a package to support Arctic security. Denmark has since sent conscripts to the territory for the first time in its modern history.
Greenland left the European Communities in 1985 and is now an overseas territory associated with the EU, though its residents hold EU citizenship. The bloc is reviewing its Arctic policy to reflect the region’s growing strategic weight.
