Senior European diplomats are due to hold crisis talks after Donald Trump said he was targeting eight European nations with tariffs over their opposition to his attempt to annex Greenland.

Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, said Trump’s tariffs would be a mistake, and the Dutch foreign minister, David van Weel, described the US president’s threats to allies as “blackmail”, as reaction from European leaders continued to pile up.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, will urge the EU to use its powerful anti-coercion instrument if the US goes ahead with the tariffs in the standoff over Greenland, Agence France-Presse reported on Sunday, citing his team.