Today the Cyprus Republic takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, with which the 18-month Poland-Denmark-Cyprus Trio presidency will be concluded. This is the second time Cyprus will hold the presidency, the first time being 14 years ago, when Demetris Christofias was the president.
The Republic takes over this presidency with much greater confidence than in 2012, just eight years after accession, at a time when the economy was in disarray, with the banking system on the brink of collapse and the government shut out of the money markets. It did not help that the then president was a Cold War era communist who was hostile to the West and the EU project.
Conditions are very different today. Cyprus has been part of the union for more than 20 years, the economy is one of the best-performing in the bloc and President Nikos Christodoulides has always been a champion of Europe and the West. If there is one criticism that could be made of the way his government has approached the presidency it is that it has been displaying excessive confidence about everything it will achieve in this role, which is mainly administrative.
The presidency chairs the council’s meetings, committees and working parties, organises formal and informal meetings in Brussels, Luxembourg and the host country as well as representing the council in its dealing with other EU institutions such as the European parliament and the commission. During its six-month presidency, Cyprus will host some 260 meetings, including 27 high-level gatherings and 19 informal ministerial councils. Good organisation, in short is key for a successful presidency.
In a time of geopolitical upheaval, the Cyprus presidency, according to official statements, will adopt a result-oriented approach, based on priorities such as “autonomy through security, defence readiness and preparedness, autonomy through competitiveness”, plus “an autonomous union of values that leaves no-one behind”. These priorities explain the motto of the presidency – “An autonomous union. Open to the world.”
President Christodoulides described the objectives of the presidency thus: “The Cyprus presidency will work with determination to give new momentum to the European edifice and contribute substantially to the next step in our common journey.”
We have set ourselves unrealistically ambitious objectives for the presidency, which we will only have six months achieve, while the government’s domestic campaigning about the presidency has exaggerated the power the Republic will exercise in the EU for the first six months of 2026.
Nobody will criticise us for not securing the EU’s “autonomy through security, defence readiness and preparedness”, by the end of June. We will be criticised, however, if the organisation of meetings, the chairing of committees and other administrative responsibilities we will have do not go smoothly. We are certain that even if we are unable to shape EU policy, the know-how exists, as was proved 14 years ago, to have a smoothly run and successful presidency.
