‘We prefer respect to bullies,’ Macron says

European Commmission President Ursula von der Leyen has told the World Economic Forum in Davos that the world is changing and called for Europe to adapt accordingly.

During her speech, von der Leyen also addressed issues like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, economic upheaval and the advent of artificial intelligence (AI). 

She confessed, while concluding the speech with a focus on Greenland, that “when I started preparing for this address, security in the high north was not the main theme.”

But von der Leyen said it would be a “mistake” for the Trump administration to try to impose fresh tariffs on the EU in light of its designs on Greenland. 

“The European Union and the United States have agreed to a trade deal last July. And in politics as in business — a deal is a deal. And when friends shake hands, it must mean something,” she said.

Von der Leyen said any EU response to US pressure would be “unflinching, united and proportional.” 

She also sought to highlight that Europe was “fully committed” to security in the Arctic region, saying “we share the objectives of the United States in this regard.”

“For instance, our EU member, Finland, one of the newest NATO members, is selling its first icebreakers to the United States. And this shows that we have capabilities in the ice, so to speak,” she said, referring to an area of naval development where the US has fallen far behind the fleets of Russia and China in recent years, as climate change looks set to render Arctic waters more navigable.

Von der Leyen recommended that an icebreaker building program be one of the things funded by the European defense spending surge.