You can also read this letter online, here:

https://eschrama.com/european-action/the-greenland-letter.html

13th of January, 2025

Concerning: The Greenland Letter - an Open Letter about the threats and challenges of 2025, and specifically the looming conflict with Trump’s USA.

Dear Sir / Madam,

Dear member of the European Parliament,

A new year has started, and the EU has only recently elected a new parliament to determine the future of the European continent. As Europe’s newly elected representatives, many serious challenges will face you. Indeed, 2025 appears to be a year of crucial importance to Europe’s future.Which is why I would like to take this opportunity to draw your attention to a serious issue that has been gathering steam for many decades, but is likely to escalate while you sit in the Hemicycle.

A LOOMING CONFLICT WITH TRUMP’S USA

As you maybe aware, Donald Trump has recently made a public statement that it is his intention as incoming president to annex both Canada, the Panama Canal Zone and Greenland to America, because – in his words – these countries are “of strategic interest” to the US.

This may sound utterly rediculous to us,but it is worth mentioning that two of the targets of his wild annexation plans are independent nations, and the other is an autonomous territory of Denmark, as well as one of the European Union’s Overseas Countries & Territories (OCT). In short: Greenland is official EU territory and its inhabitants are full EU citizens. Despite that, the incoming US president has publically proclaimed that he wants to annex European territory, either by somehow buying it (event hough nobody is willing to sell), by means of some kind of “economic sanctions”, or evenby military force. The question is: Can we let such an open declaration of aggressive expansionist intent just pass us by without taking any kind of action in response?

These statements are evidence of an openly aggressive and reckless attitude that is chronic and historical, and also typical of Washington. Of course, this talk of annexing European land is not the only unethical statement the US government has ever made about Europe. After all, we can remember when Mr Trump recently threatened the EU with economic sanctions if Europe refused to buy more American oil and gas. Similarly, we have seen Mr Trump’s “efficiency czar” Elon Musk meddle with the internal politics of European states, spouting his unwanted opinions on, for instance, the state of the German economy. But is all of this not ourbusiness, not Washingon’s? Why do the Yanks believe they have a god-given right to meddle in European politics when it’s not their own country? It’s a question to think about!

Nor is this the first time that the government of the United States of America has shown open hostility towards Europe. One striking example of America’s history of unethical and openly belligerent behaviour towards Europe is the fact that America currently has an active law on its books - a law that was accepted in 2002 and has never been repealed, despite its blatantly unethical nature: This law authorises the American President to order the US military machine to take military action against an EU member-state, namely The Netherlands! In short: it allows the president of the US the freedom to meddle, bribe, sabotage, and even openly attack the Netherlands, and therefore authorise acts of war against the whole of the EU! Again, this sounds absurd, but it is nevertheless true as well as 100% verifiable. I refer of course to the so-called The Hague Invasion Act, or by its official name the “American Servicemen Protection Act”. More information can be read here or watched here.

Unfortunately, that is not even the first act of aggression the US government has ever taken against European states, nor is it the first unethical act the US have committed on European soil. It is worth mentioning that the US have maintained for years illegal prisons on European soil (the so-called “black sites”) where detainees were subjected to wrongful imprisonment, punishment without trial and torture (more information can be read here). The existence of these CIA black sites has been brought to light over the years and has been thoroughly documented. So, despite the fact that all European nations have laws to protect human rights, and the EU itself is a staunch advocate of the European Convention on Human Rights, Europe as a whole has failed to defend human rights against the pressure of America’s “strategic global interests”, by allowing both the American intelligence agencies as well as the American armed forces to roam at will and do as they please on our soil.

This “total surrender” of Europe to the US is evidenced by, amongst other things, the horrific stories of illegal experiments on European citizens, especially vulnerable orphan children in Denmark, but also citizens of Germany and France, that have been conducted by the US government, without any reparation ever being made. It is important to note that these programs fall under the category of illegal human experimentation, as no informed consent of the participants was sought. It is all out in the open, if only we want to look. (You can read more about the US’s illegal experiments here)

The total surrender of Europe’s economy to America’s strategic interests is also made evident by occurences of direct intervention by the US government in European economic and political affairs, such as in2024, when the US government outright ordered the Dutch government to ban Europe’s biggest technology company, ASML, from delivering their chip making machines to China, or face the consequences ... And so ASML was banned from selling their machines.

Not very “strategically autonomous”.

To make our strategic situation even worse, the US military currently maintains some 50.000 soldiers on active duty across European territory (source:https://www.statista.com/statistics/1294271/us-troops-europe-country/), spread out over dozens of bases, but with a notable presence in Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands – as this last country serves as the US military’s main logistics gateway into the European continent. It is worrisome that currently the strength of the US Army in Germany alone is roughly half of the total complement of the German Army itself, with 35 000 US soldiers stationed in Germany against 63 000 total personnel of the German Army. With so many American troops permanently stationed in Europe, any impartial observer might well come to the conclusion that Europe is in fact a protectorate under the military occupation of a foreign and often unfriendly power. Can we deny this? Is this good for the future? And can we really build a “strategically autonomous” Europe as long as we have a large foreign army based on European soil?

At the same time, American politicians other than Mr Trump also openly meddle in the politics and internal affairs of Europe, both on the right side and the left side of Europe’s political spectrum. For example: On the left we have had John Kerry and Joe Biden who were in Ukraine waving the US flag and telling people to fight to the death, while on the right we saw CPAC coming to Hungary to wave the US flag, while politicians from all over the EU were summoned to Mr Trump’s private mansion in Mar-a-Lago in Florida to present themselves to The Donald for his inspection.

Is this really how we will achieve an independent and self-reliant Europe?

Lastly, it may be prudent to remind you also of the Pegasus scandal, which involved US intelligence agencies, specifically the CIA and NSA, wiretapping European politicians, such as Angela Merkel. This was a clear breach of trust by the Americans, as allies do not spy on each other. However, it is known that the American government has been actively spying on Europe’s business community for many decades now. This raises the question why we continue to consider the Americans as“our allies”?

The truth is that the Americans do not behave as if they are our allies. They do not behave as if they consider us equal partners who are valued. In fact, they behave as if we have a target painted on our collective backs. They behave as if they believe that they are our overlords. And with the US continuing to dictate policy over European states, and with American troops having free access to Europe whenever they want it, this toxic attitude is not likely to get any better anytime soon.

What can we do about it?

Unfortunately, the EU is currently not led by leaders who are willing to confront the chronic bad behaviour of the USA and who instead want to stimulate greater European independence. Specifically, we are talking about people like mrs Von der Leyen, who seems to spend more time in Washington and NewYork than in Brussels, who apparently put the EU on the New York Stock Exchange (why, one has to wonder?!) and who keeps issuing statements that the EU and the US are halves of the same transatlantic coin, in fact, that peace in Europe is – if we believe mrs Von der Leyen – guaranteed by continued American dominance. The question raises itself: Is a devout “transatlanticist” really the leader who can put Europe back on itsfeet as an independent political union with an autonomous and self-reliant economy? Clearly not! Which is one of the many reason why we sent the previous EP our previous open letter explaining why it would be a mistake to re-elect Mrs Von der Leyen (you can re-read it here).

The question is this: Is it truly wise to remain doggedly transatlantic when our so-called “ally” on the other side of the ocean openly proclaims that they want to annex our land and our people, openly threatens our member-states with military action, openly meddles in our internal politics, and openly treats our ancient European civlizations as if we’re a prize to fight over, and our ancient nations as nothing more than vassal states that need to follow orders and cede territory when we’re told to?!

I believe not.

It is time for Europeans to realize that the US government does not behave like an ally, and has never behaved like an ally, but has been behaving in bad faith for many decades now. It is also time to realise that any leader of the EU who still openly clings to her label as a “transaltlanticist” and who continues to defend and justify America’s chronic ill-treatment of Europe’s nations and people, is simply not fit to lead the Union. As Europeans, there is much we can do. Remaining dependent on non-European forces, however, is not one of the options.

So ,this is what we as Europeans can do:

• Truly work on Europe’s strategic autonomy. Let it be be more than just an empty phrase invented by mrs Von der Leyen’s speech writer!

• Ask why the head of the Commission seems to spend more time in Washington and New York than in Brussels and Strasburg, and demand that the “president of the EU” does not travel all the way to the US to attend festivals or to meet with the US president. For the official leader of the EU, Europe should always be more important than America!

• Oppose the Commission’s continued pro-American collaborationist attitude, and demand that if there needs to be transatlantic collaboration, then Europe should start to act as a true equal partner, rather than a protectorate.

• Argue for the return of all American soldiers back to their homes across the water. This is Europe, after all, and Europe should be protected by Europeans.

I thank you for your attention. I hope you have found this Open Letter a worthwhile read. If you would like, I would be happy to continue this discussion about Europe’s growing need for independence and self-reliance in detail in person.

I look forward to your response with considerable interest.

Kind & European regards,

Erik Schrama

E: erik@eschrama.com

T: 0032 480 68 93 66

W: www.eschrama.com/european-action

X: https://x.com/euroreform

https://t.me/eurodemocracy