BRUSSELS — The European Parliament has postponed its decision to unfreeze the EU-U.S. trade deal — but signaled it would do so at a later date.

After two and a half hours of closed-door talks on Monday, the Parliament’s top trade lawmakers failed to agree whether to put the transatlantic deal to a vote. This despite calls from EU countries last week to unblock the implementation because U.S. President Donald Trump had walked back his threats to seize Greenland.

“Of course we want the deal,” said Social Democrat lawmaker Kathleen van Brempt after the meeting. But “we need clarity” on the agreement Trump said he struck with NATO that ultimately convinced him to back down.

The Parliament froze ratification of the agreement, signed by Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in July, after the U.S. president threatened tariffs on European allies backing Greenland.

Lead negotiators will meet Feb. 4 to decide next steps, the Parliament’s International Trade Committee Chair Bernd Lange said.

At the meeting, lawmakers broadly agreed that the deal should go ahead now Trump has backtracked. But political groups are divided on whether they should first play hardball with the U.S. and demand more details on the NATO-Trump agreement, according to four people familiar with the talks.

The center-right European People’s Party wants to “move forward” as soon as possible as it is “best for businesses … to create some more stability,” said the EPP’s top trade lawmaker, Jörgen Warborn. The right-wing ECR group and the far-right Patriots also pushed for work on the deal to continue.

But the Socialists, the liberals of Renew and the Greens want to play it tougher, and want to see more details of the Greenland deal first, pointing to Trump’s unpredictability.

“The guy threatened with tariffs, then he did not,” S&D’s van Brempt said, adding that the Socialists want to know where the European Commission stands on using the Anti-Coercion Instrument — it’s most powerful trade weapon — that it moved closer to readying before Trump walked back his tariff threats.

“Improved U.S.-EU trade relations are of the highest importance, but must be built on mutual respect,” top liberal trade lawmaker Karin Karlsbro told POLITICO. “The door is open, but there is no need to rush the timetable.”

A senior Commission trade official told the meeting the executive wants to accelerate the deal after Trump’s turnaround.

“The Commission is falling back to their old position now,” said an MEP who was in the room, granted anonymity to speak about the confidential meeting, adding the Parliament needs to push for the Commission to “keep the pressure high” on Washington.

Lawmakers also discussed whether to formally ask the Commission to launch the first, investigative stage of the Anti-Coercion Instrument, but there was not a majority to do so, the chair of the U.S. delegation Brando Benifei said.