ABSTRACT
In 1985, Greenland became the first territory to ever leave the European Community (EC) when it opted for a status as an Overseas Country or Territory (OCT). The way Greenland had to follow Denmark into the EC in 1973 – whereby Greenlanders saw control over its fisheries transferred from Copenhagen to even further removed Brussels – was crucial to the Greenlandic demands for home rule, which succeeded in 1979 and made the 1985 withdrawal possible. On 9 June 2009, a majority of the people of Greenland voted in favour of enhanced home rule – ‘selfgovernment’ – still under formal Danish sovereignty. Denmark and Greenland alike are preparing for a future envisioned as one of climate change, intensive raw material extraction, new transportation corridors and new claims to sovereignty over the Arctic. Greenland uses this envisioned future as a lever to enhance its subjectivity, not least when dealing with the European Union (EU).
