Cypriot presidency's plans for six months running EU Council business

Cyprus, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, is putting autonomy at the heart of its priorities until June 2026, along with research and innovation and education.

After Denmark, Cyprus took over the EU presidency on 01/01/2026. Its term will last until the end of June. It has made autonomy the watchword for its five priorities:

• Autonomy through security, defence readiness and preparedness;
• Autonomy through competitiveness;
• Open to the world, autonomous;
• An autonomous union of values that leaves no one behind.

Cyprus intends to advance work on negotiations for the EU's long-term budget, the Multilateral Financial Framework (MFF) for 2028-2034, aiming to deliver a "well-developed, mature" negotiating "box", or draft, with indicative figures.

In the field of research, the country aims to achieve "significant progress" on the negotiations on Horizon Europe 2028-2034, in particular on support for cutting-edge research, simplification of EU funding instruments and bridging the gap between research and market-ready innovation.

Regarding Erasmus+…