BRUSSELS — The European Parliament’s three largest political groups are discussing new safeguards against the unpredictability of President Donald Trump in a bid to break a deadlock over approving the EU–U.S. trade deal, according to two lawmakers and three officials familiar with the talks.

Center-left and liberal lawmakers are asking for a clause to be included in enabling legislation that is now before the house, under which the deal would be voided if Trump restarts his threats against the territorial sovereignty of Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark.

“We will need to have safeguards in place with a clear reference to territorial sovereignty directed at Trump’s unpredictability,” said an official of the Socialists & Democrats familiar with the discussions, granted anonymity to speak about confidential deliberations.

There are already suspension clauses in the text, but lawmakers want to include definitions — including threats to territorial sovereignty — to strengthen them. Apart from the sovereignty clause, the definitions should specify that new tariff threats would trigger an automatic suspension of the agreement, said an official from the liberal Renew Europe group.

That could pave the way for a vote on the Parliament’s position to be scheduled for the next meeting of its International Trade Committee on Feb. 23-24. For the EU to implement its side of the bargain, the Parliament and Council of the EU, representing the bloc’s 27 members, would still need to reach a final compromise.

“This could be perhaps a date to vote,” Bernd Lange, the chair of the committee, told POLITICO, referring to the Feb. 23-24 meeting. Lange added that outstanding issues — including whether to schedule a vote on the deal at all — will be discussed at a meeting of lead negotiators scheduled for Wednesday next week.

“The question of safeguard[s] is an important one and will be solved in the proper way,” he added.

The Parliament froze ratification of the agreement, reached by Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last July, after the U.S. president threatened tariffs on European allies backing Greenland, a self-governing Danish protectorate.

The center-right European People’s Party has pushed to sign off on the deal following calls from EU countries to unblock the implementation after Trump walked back threats to seize Greenland. But S&D, Renew and the Greens have so far balked, arguing further details are needed on the “framework” deal agreed by Trump with NATO chief Mark Rutte.

An EPP official with knowledge of the discussions said the center-right group was open to stricter suspension safeguards in case Trump turns hostile again. “If he threatens [again] then the deal is off, but not the rest of our economic cooperation,” the official said.

One of the S&D’s demands had been to officially ask the Commission to launch an investigation into whether Washington is coercing Europe to give up Greenland, which could lead to the launch of the EU’s Anti-Coercion Instrument. This trade “bazooka” is the bloc’s most powerful trade retaliatory weapon — but the EPP strongly opposes deploying it.

“Anti-coercion is a serious and nuclear weapon that should be last discussed with strategic allies,” the EPP’s top trade lawmaker Željana Zovko told POLITICO, adding that the tool is “not serious diplomacy, only for drama queens.”

Lawmakers are also discussing adding a sunset clause that would require the Commission to review the agreement after a set period, as well as excluding its steel provisions from ratification until the U.S. withdraws its 50 percent tariffs on European goods containing steel. MEPs say this violates the 15 percent all-inclusive rate agreed last summer.