Greenland, capital Donetsk
The future of Greenland and the future of Europe have long been at stake in Ukraine.
For months now, and especially since assuming the presidency of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in July 2025—an organization comprising 57 countries and representing over one billion people from Vancouver to Vladivostok—I have participated in dozens of meetings. In all of them, the perception is the same: the negotiations for peace in Ukraine are seen by a majority as imposed. And, at the same time, a profound paradigm shift with the new Trump administration is becoming disturbingly clear.
The way Europe emerges from this conflict will decisively shape its future relationship with the United States. Some countries, and some European leaders, are beginning to understand—perhaps too late—that European passivity last summer in the face of the steps toward a supposed peace in Anchorage, without Europe and without Ukraine, and the subsequent weak and insufficient response, have accelerated ambitions that are no longer theoretical: Greenland and Vene.
In this context, President Zelensky's clear, firm, and unequivocal response to Russian demands for peace is an example that Europe should have replicated in other scenarios that are now part of reality.
Europe, especially the OSCE area, is experiencing a new era of instability, confrontation, and insecurity. This trend predates the Biden administration and was fully confirmed by the United States' 2025 National Security Strategy, published last December. These are no longer just perceptions: it is now written doctrine.
As Martin Wolf recently explained in Financial TimesThe implicit objective of this strategy is to dismantle the European project: its people, its democracy, the freedom and pluralism of the press, and its welfare model. Europe is currently the greatest threat to the MAGA ideology. And this, paradoxically, is good news.
The World Economic Forum has long warned of a new, more competitive world order, with an increase in geoeconomic conflicts and growing pressure on the pillars of global multilateralism. In this scenario, Europe becomes an obstacle for Trumpism, which sees Orbán's model as its European benchmark. Anything that deviates is perceived as an enemy. And today, Europe is a target by the United States administration.
Having fewer rules, eroding institutions, or abandoning multilateralism as a solution to global conflicts is nothing new. What is crucial is the response. And this response can only come from a united Europe, capable of activating political, economic, and diplomatic instruments that demonstrate our belief in democracy, international law, and the institutional order established after 1945.
This is not naiveté. The facts prove it: Putin has not won in Donetsk, nor has Trump resolved any real conflict. He has not stopped the war in Ukraine, he has not brought a just peace to the Middle East, he has not improved the global economy with tariffs, nor has he brought greater freedom or well-being to Venezuela. On the contrary: he has legitimized a regime that keeps a Maduro substitute in power while the population continues to suffer.
That's why Ukraine is so important. Because Greenland's first border is in Donetsk. In October, at a meeting in Istanbul with a high-ranking international leader, we shared what was the implicit plan for peace: Donetsk for Putin, nothing for Ukraine, success for Trump, and only one loser: the European project.
Zelensky already warned at the Stockholm International Conference on Crimea: Putin and Trump's Russia cannot decide Ukraine's future without Kyiv. And, so far, neither Russia nor Putin has managed to impose that peace. This is the lesson of Donetsk. And it is also a lesson for Greenland and for Europe.
If Europe is unable to defend a European Ukraine, through multilateralism and with Ukraine as part of the solution, it will have taken the first step toward losing Greenland. This territory has already clearly expressed its desire to remain within the framework of the European Union, NATO, and Denmark.
The people of Greenland know this because they have seen it in Venezuela: Trump doesn't care much about people – whether they are Ukrainian or Venezuelan.
As a corollary, the new American policy demonstrates two things: that it is necessary to reform the international architecture to strengthen multilateralism as a tool for resolving conflicts, and that the United States has lost global influence in the 21st century. That is why they act with a logic typical of the 19th century, a logic that the 20th century already showed us leads to, and that is nothing other than the horror of war.
Fortunately, multilateralism, democracy, and international law are stronger than a presidential mandate. And in Europe, this president has less support today than at the beginning of his term. We must be more European than ever, we must be more multilateral than ever, and we must not play both sides. standards depending on the conflict and our perception of it.
We believe we have an opportunity to strengthen the European project, deepen multilateralism and improve democracy.