EU leaders gathered for a hastily arranged summit in Brussels on Thursday evening, hours after most of them had been in Davos for the World Economic Forum amid the furore over Greenland caused by US President Donald Trump. 

The emergency summit was originally supposed to discuss a response to threats of fresh tariffs over Greenland. But US President Donald Trump's nebulous announcement of a "deal" appeared to have taken this specter off the table, at least in the immediate term. 

Still, the leaders gathered with many unanswered questions about the nature of any agreement, and perhaps about the trustworthiness of the US going forward with the erratic former real estate mogul at the helm for another three years. 

Merz 'grateful' for sudden climbdown in Davos

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz welcomed Trump's apparent U-turn. 

"I am very grateful that President Trump has distanced himself from his original plans to take over Greenland, and I am also grateful that he has refrained from imposing additional tariffs on February 1," Merz told reporters ahead of the summit. 

Merz also said that the EU countries "will have to strengthen the resilience and robustness of the European Union" going forward.

Denmark calls for permanent NATO presence in Arctic region

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen repeated her country's call for an intensified NATO military presence in the Arctic region and the semi-autonomous territory of Greenland, in response to Trump's claims of US control being necessary to fix perceived security shortfalls. 

"We need a permanent presence from NATO in the Arctic regoion, including around Greenland," Frederiksen told reporters. Like leaders in Greenland, she reiterated that sovereignty was a red line, but indicated a willingness to discuss further cooperation with the US. 

"It's clear for everybody that we are a sovereign state ‍and we cannot negotiate about that. But of ​course we can discuss with the US how we ⁠can ​strengthen our common cooperation on security in ‌the ‌arctic region," she said.

The US already has extensive rights to military access and construction in Greenland dating back the better part of a century. Trump has touted a "total access" deal in which the US will get "everything we wanted" at no cost, but has not gone into detail or explained how this differs from the status quo.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte told the Reuters news agency that Western allies would step up their presence in the region under the deal, but did not flesh out how. 

Relief tempered with caution

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said that despite Trump's change of tack, there was plenty for European leaders to discuss. 

"I think everybody's relieved by the recent announcements," she said. "We have also seen that in this one-year period, we are ready for a lot of unpredictability."

"We need to still discuss our plans for different scenarios because everything could change," she added, pointing out that neither EU members nor the United States benefited from unpredictability in transatlantic relations. "Every kind of disagreement that allies have, like Europe and America, is just benefiting our adversaries who are looking and enjoying the view."

Macron: 'We remain extremely vigilant'

French President Emmanuel Macron, who had made the clearest threats of considering using mechanisms like the EU's anti-coercion trade tool to counter any US tariffs at Davos, warned that such mechanisms remained in the EU's arsenal should they be needed. 

"What we must conclude from this is that when Europe responds in a united manner, using the instruments at its disposal when it is threatened, it can command respect — and that is a very good thing," he said in doorstep comments in Brussels.

The leaders' formal meeting was set to start at 7 p.m. local time (1800 UTC/GMT) and run into Friday. Typically, the 27 heads of state and government that make up the European Council are in a position to depart by lunchtime at the latest. 

Edited by: Sean Sinico