Denmark

French presence

Consular section at the Embassy in Copenhagen
7 honorary consular sections (Denmark, Greenland, Faroe Islands)
French community in Denmark: 6,100 registered and around 3,000 non-registered
Danish community in France: approximately 3,000

Visits

On 28 and 29 August 2018, the French President made a historic State visit, the first to Denmark in over 35 years. Several cooperation agreements and letters of intent were signed during the visit (defence; development, with an emphasis on the Sahel; energy and climate; cinema coproduction; university cooperation; ethical fashion; shareholder foundation) which also brought large-scale media and public visibility. This visit gave great momentum to the political relationship between French and Denmark, further strengthened by the support of the Danish Royal Family. The visit to Paris by then-Prince Frederik and Princess Mary, from 6 to 8 October 2019, also helped strengthen our economic and trade ties.

The Foreign Ministers of both countries are in regular contact. Following his appointment to the post of Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Lars Løkke Rasmussen visited Paris on 10 January 2023, after his first visit abroad in Berlin. He also met his counterpart Stéphane Séjourné in Copenhagen on 22 March 2024, and again in Paris on 2 August 2024.

In other ministerial visits, then Minister for National Education and Youth, Gabriel Attal, made a trip to Copenhagen on 22 September 2023, and Minister Delegate Olivier Becht had a meeting with Mr Lars Løkke Rasmussen and several business leaders during a trip to Denmark on 13 October 2023.  

Cultural, scientific and technical cooperation

The Institut Français in Denmark (IFD) in Copenhagen is the operator of cultural cooperation conducted by the French Embassy in Denmark.

Scientific cooperation covers the fields of energy and environment, cutting-edge engineering, healthcare, ICT, and Arctic and sub-Arctic studies. It operates mainly through relations between research institutions (Partnership Agreement in 2006 between the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF)). The state Visit in 2018 was an opportunity to promote bilateral academic exchanges through European programmes and sign a cooperation agreement between Université Paris 8 and Roskilde University, and a letter of intent on space cooperation. Since then, major bilateral research agreements have been regularly signed: between the CNRS and the University of Copenhagen in September 2021 and between the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) and the Danish National Genome Center in March 2023, for example.

The IFD conducts a policy of supporting the mobility of French and Danish researchers through the “IFD Sciences” and “Blåtand” programmes. For the year 2023/2024, the scientific service prioritized three new scientific fields: artificial intelligence, quantum physics and space research.

Regarding student mobility, there is a disproportionate number of French students travelling to Denmark to study (600 students) compared to the number of Danish exchange students in France (around 300), as Danish students receive a universal student income in their country. Nonetheless, work is underway to boost the exchanges in certain courses in the fields of agriculture, hospitality and catering. 
French is the third-most-studied language in the Danish national education system, after English and German. However, the Danish authorities are showing strong political intentions to reduce the number of languages offered, thereby creating a major challenge for French language-learning. The number of French language-learners remains steady, but with geographical disparities depending on the regions. The Danish interest in the French language extends beyond schools: French classes offered by the IFD are extremely popular among the public, with more than 1,200 enrolled (755 different learners) in 2023.