EU working to become “military powerhouse,” von der Leyen says

The European Union is working to become a “military powerhouse,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said during a closed-door meeting with lawmakers from her centre-right European People’s Party in the European Parliament on January 14.

“We know that we need to be strong and strength means. We are not a military powerhouse, but we are building up to be a military powerhouse,” von der Leyen told MEPs, according to sources in the room, Euractiv reports. 

She added that the EU is already an economic powerhouse and must continually improve its performance.

“But we are an economic powerhouse … we have to improve our performance over and over and over, it’s like a business, that it stays an economic powerhouse,” she said.

Her comments came as a Danish and Greenlandic delegation prepared to meet senior members of Donald Trump’s administration in Washington amid US threats to annex Greenland, the autonomous Danish territory.

Von der Leyen told MEPs that the EU respects Greenlanders’ right to make decisions for themselves, while assuring them that they can rely on European support.

Von der Leyen also refused to confirm whether Greenland would be covered by the EU’s mutual defence clause, Article 42.7 of the EU Treaty.

“There are many speculations out there about what should be done, what could be done, what may be done,” she said at a press conference earlier on January 14 when directly asked whether the clause would apply if the US invaded the mineral-rich territory.

By Sabina Mammadli