BRUSSELS — Donald Trump’s address to the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday will help determine the tone of Europe’s response to the U.S. president’s tariff threats as leaders desperately search for an off-ramp from the standoff.

European governments are holding out hope they can lower the temperature and get Trump to abandon his vow to slap punitive tariffs on European countries that have opposed the sale of Greenland to the U.S. POLITICO spoke to 11 diplomats and two EU officials, all of whom said they want to avoid retaliation and are betting that a diplomatic solution to the crisis can still be found.

“The focus is getting the ball rolling in Davos. Then, we will take stock” at an emergency EU leaders’ summit convened for Thursday, said one EU diplomat. “The pressure needs to come down.”

Trump’s announcement on Saturday, in which he threatened six EU countries plus the U.K. and Norway with additional 10 per cent tariffs as of next month because they haven’t supported his designs on Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory in the Kingdom of Denmark, has sparked the biggest rupture in transatlantic relations in decades.

A key reason the EU is loath to come out swinging is that no one knows whether Trump will actually follow through on his threats — and they are terrified of needlessly exploding already-frayed transatlantic ties, according to the diplomats.

All the diplomats and EU officials POLITICO spoke with cautioned that it was too early to threaten to deploy the EU’s Anti-Coercion Instrument, or “trade bazooka,” an idea being championed by French President Emmanuel Macron.

Wielding the instrument — an all-purpose tool meant to deter other countries from using trade tactics to extort concessions in other areas — still faces significant opposition.

The leader of the EU’s biggest political force, the European People’s Party group, said at an internal meeting on Monday that the option should be off the table and that the EU must be tough with the Americans in private but deescalate in public, according to two people in the room. German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul and his Italian counterpart Antonio Tajani took a similar line at the same meeting.

“We need to be very moderate because our goal is not to fight with the Americans. Our goal is to strengthen our economies.” Tajani told POLITICO. “We want to talk” with the Americans.

MEP Nicola Procaccini, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-hand man in the European Parliament, added: “We have to avoid the escalations.”

Three diplomats POLITICO spoke with said the tool was still being considered — but as a last-resort option that requires more consideration within capitals.

Ambassadors on Monday relayed a growing resolve to hit back that had emerged from their three-hour meeting on Sunday.

“The mood is shifting,” said a senior EU diplomat. “We need to be stronger and firmer. He [Trump] probably respects the show of force more than the hand that you extend to him because this is for him a sign of weakness.”

In parallel, European embassies in Washington are coordinating among themselves to reach out to key U.S. industries and firms that would be hit by potential EU countermeasures in an effort to build pressure on Trump to abandon the plan, according to two of the diplomats. They are also reaching out to members of Trump’s entourage and to Republicans running for reelection in mid-term elections in the U.S. in November.

“What we are trying to do is influence members of Congress,” said the senior EU diplomat above, who was in the room when ambassadors held their emergency meeting on Sunday evening. “They are Republicans, they are up for reelection in November. They have to think about their audiences at home. We are trying to convince them to do something.”

“European patience and tolerance are at an all-time low. But that doesn’t mean that collectively we would be prepared to use” the full force of the EU’s trade weapons, said a national official. “We’re trying to deescalate this week.”

Zoya Sheftalovich and Nicholas Vinocur reported from Brussels; Max Griera reported from Strasbourg. Gerardo Fortuna, Gabriel Gavin, Jacopo Barigazzi and Seb Starcevic contributed reporting.