From 1 January to 30 June 2026, the Republic of Cyprus will assume the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. This will be the second mandate, after the one in 2012, that the Mediterranean island will hold.

It is a task that is entrusted to a different EU member country every six months. After the end of the Danish presidency, with the start of the new year, it will be Cyprus who will take over the presidency of this institution with the task of coordinating the work, setting the political agenda and mediating between the various member states.

During its six-month term, the Republic of Cyprus will chair numerous meetings and conferences between Brussels and Luxembourg. More than 250 meetings will take place on the island, including 27 high-level meetings, such as an informal meeting of Heads of State and Government, and 19 informal ministerial councils.

The Council

The Council of the European Union, often called the EU Council, is one of the institutions of the European Union. Unlike the European Council – which only brings together the heads of state or government of the member states – the EU Council is composed of the ministers of the 27 member states. Its composition changes depending on the ministers who meet (e.g. if agriculture is being discussed, the ministers responsible for this subject will meet) with ten different configurations depending on the subject matter.

The Council of the European Union negotiates and adopts EU laws together with the European Parliament on the basis of proposals from the European Commission. It coordinates member states’ policies to ensure coherence in various areas and draws up the Common Foreign and Security Policy following the guidelines of the European Council. It also signs international agreements with other countries or organisations and approves the annual budget together with the European Parliament.

The Semester Programme

“Our Presidency comes at a time of geopolitical and geo-economic challenges. Challenges that test the resilience of the member states, the resilience of the EU, our unity, Our history has shown us that the EU has faced its challenges not with fear but as an opportunity,” was how President of the Republic of Cyprus Nikos Christodoulides presented the logo, programme and priorities of the Presidency at a ceremony organised in the small eastern village of Lefkara.

A programme summed up by the motto ‘An Autonomous Union. Open to the World.” (An Autonomous Union. Open to the World).

Strategic autonomy has indeed been identified as the key priority of the Cypriot Presidency. A strategic autonomy to be pursued through five overarching priorities: security and defence; competitiveness; trade openness; defence of democratic values and an ambitious EU budget.

Among the various points outlined in the programme, support for Ukraine remains central. Indeed, Nicosia will have the delicate task of finalising the outcome of the summit of European leaders who, a few days before Christmas, decided to support Ukraine to the tune of EUR 90 billion through the joint debt mechanism.

By virtue of its geographical position as a first arrival country for migrants, a special focus will then be placed on the full implementation of the Migration and Asylum Pact and support for the Mediterranean Pact initiative.

Role of the EU and medium-term objectives

In the Cypriot vision, the EU should strengthen its global role and international cooperation through the consolidation of strategic partnerships and alliances. In this sense, the Presidency will promote the enlargement agenda towards Moldova and the Western Balkans and work on strengthening relations with the Southern and Eastern neighbourhood and the Gulf countries.

Nicosia also intends to pursue the legislative and regulatory simplification agenda undertaken by the European Commission in order to reduce bureaucracy for businesses – especially for small and medium-sized ones – and enhance their competitiveness in global markets.

Among the sharpest knots Cyprus will face are the negotiations for the definition of the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF); that is, the next long-term EU budget for the period 2028-2034. A budget that will have to prove to be ambitious in order to support the delicate and multiple challenges that the EU will have to face.

In its priorities, the Presidency also intends to promote the strengthening of transatlantic relations and Euro-Atlantic cooperation, as well as maritime security and water resilience.

The Cypriot peculiarity

Cyprus is the only EU Member State still partially under occupation since 1974. The island is in fact separated into two parts with the Republic of Cyprus (Greek Cypriot majority) representing the only internationally recognised legitimate government and the northern part of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, recognised only by Turkey.

The recent Geneva talks in March 2025, mediated by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, highlighted the persistence of traditional positions. Nicosia insists on the historic position of maintaining the island as a bi-zonal federation and on the goal of resuming official negotiations, while the Turkish Cypriot side, supported by Ankara, now sees the two-state solution as the only possible solution to the dispute.

It cannot be ruled out that the presidency of the EU Council by the Republic of Cyprus could be an opportunity to bring back to the centre of the European and international political agenda an issue that has conditioned the geopolitical balances in the eastern Mediterranean for over fifty years.