The Kingdom of Denmark assumed the Presidency of the Council of the EU for the period from 1 July to 31 December 2025. Under the slogan “A Strong Europe in a changing world!”, the programme of the Danish Presidency has two overarching priorities: a secure Europe and a competitive and green Europe.

Under the first priority, in the area of defence, the Danish Presidency prioritises tasks such as curbing irregular migration, reinforcing external borders, strengthening EU resilience and deterrence, upholding European values, and reducing risks to the economy. It also seeks to ensure the EU's political, economic, civilian, and military support to Ukraine.

In the field of Justice and Home Affairs, the Danish Presidency will give priority to preventing and combating migrant smuggling, and it will take steps to dismantle the billion-euro trafficking industry. The Presidency aims to advance negotiations on the Regulation on combating migrant smuggling as well as on the Directive establishing minimum rules to prevent and combat migrant smuggling. It will also continue trilogues on Europol's role in migrant smuggling-related investigations. In addition, the Danish Presidency will prioritise the fight against serious cross-border and organised crime, with a particular focus on drug trafficking and the growing threat posed by synthetic drugs.

The Presidency will focus on strengthening the use of the digital development in law enforcement when fighting serious crime. It will continue trilogue negotiations on combatting corruption and on the protection of victims of crime. Additionally, the new Presidency will focus on tackling the illicit trafficking of firearms and begin work within the Council on a new directive targeting this issue. In the technology sector, it will seek to bolster judicial protection and the capacity of law enforcement authorities to combat online criminal activities. High priority will be given to work on the Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) Regulation and Directive.

The Danish Presidency is the second of the current trio of Presidencies, following Poland and preceding Cyprus, which will take over in the first half of 2026 (for the trio presidency programme → eucrim 4/2024, 273).