The European Union is thinking very hard about Greenland. After days of silence criticized even by its members, this Thursday they began to clear up the key question. That of knowing whether the EU would act with article 42.7 of its treatywhich pushes for a collective defense if a member state is attacked, as could happen in the event of US aggression on the Danish island.
Hours earlier, this same Wednesday, the president of the European Commission, ensuring that “Greenlanders know they can count on us.”
He did not give more details then and he did not want to give them this Thursday, in a press conference from Cyprus, the country at the head of the EU this semester. Von der Leyen added that the inhabitants of the autonomous territory but under Danish sovereignty they can count on Brussels “politically, economically and financially”. No word about another way, the military one.
It had to be a spokesperson for the European Commission the one that would at least partially clear up the doubts. In a meeting with the media, he announced that Greenland “is in principle covered” by the aforementioned article 42.7which guarantees a collective response “with all the means at its disposal.”
This is supported by the justification that Greenland belongs to a Member State of the Union, even though the Arctic territory is not part of the community block by itself, leaving the former European Economic Community in 1995.
Without wanting to further clarify its calculated ambiguity, the voice of the Commission has added that in any case resorting to said clause is not on the tablehaving not reached the extreme of .
What exactly does 42.7 say?
- If a Member State is the object of armed aggression on its territory, the other Member States shall help and assist it with all the means at their disposal, in accordance with Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations. This is without prejudice to the specific nature of the security and defense policy of certain Member States.
- Commitments and cooperation in this area will continue to comply with the commitments acquired within the framework of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which will continue to be, for the Member States that are part of it, the foundation of their collective defense and the body for its execution.
The 42.7 so fashionable today has been invoked several times but only one has been activated. It was in France in 2015following the jihadist attacks of November 13 in various parts of Paris.
Under the assistance of the European Union bloc, the French Government was able reinforce the so-called ‘Operation Sentinelle’ which had begun after the terrorist attacks of identical jihadist motivation against the Charlie Hebdo magazine in January 2015.
