Greenland rules out EU membership despite €200 million investment

Greenland has no plans to join the European Union despite a new €200 million investment package from the bloc, Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said.

Nielsen stressed that Greenland would continue to strengthen its partnership with the EU, but ruled out reversing the island’s decision to leave the European Economic Community, the EU’s predecessor, in 1985, Caliber.Az reports per foreign media.

“Greenland has the same position as before, and we have a partnership with the EU. We want to build on that and make it more strategic and stronger,” Nielsen said.

“But membership is not something that is on the table,” he added.

His comments came after Nielsen, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen signed a joint declaration on expanded cooperation on September 7.

Under the agreement, the EU will invest €200 million in Greenland, with funding directed toward projects including satellite-based internet, critical raw materials and energy.

The new declaration expands cooperation beyond the framework established in a previous joint declaration signed in 2015.

By Jeyhun Aghazada