In a referendum on 1 June 2022, Danish voters supported Denmark joining the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy ending the country’s 30-year-long opt-out on EU’s defence cooperation.
As a result, Denmark joined the EU cooperation on security and defence on 1 July 2022, and started to contribute to EU’s military CSDP missions and operations. On 23 March 2023, it notified the Council and the High Representative of its intention to participate in PESCO and its ability to meet the commitments. Denmark has also joined the European Defence Agency in March 2023.
The Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) is a key EU defence initiative. It provides a framework for defence cooperation among the participating EU member states who have entered into more binding commitments between one another. They jointly develop defence capabilities, coordinate investments, enhance the operational readiness, interoperability and resilience of their armed forces, and collaborate in projects.
As of today, the 26 member states participating in PESCO are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.
