Statsministerens tale til Copenhagen Competitiveness Summit den 1. oktober 2025

Det talte ord gælder

Thank you, Jacob.

And thank you all for being here.

Your commitment today means a lot to all of us standing here.

And I would like to start by saying that I believe that we are on an important mission together. To create a stronger Europe.

A Europe that is able to compete globally. A Europe that is capable of defending itself.

I totally agree with you, Jacob. Europe is an amazing continent.

Some of the world’s greatest and most innovative companies were established here. And I see many of you represented here today.

But – as we all know. We are also challenged. Our competitiveness is challenged.

And we risk falling behind a global race going faster than ever before.

As everybody here knows, it's often said that U.S. innovates, China replicates, and we regulate. And unfortunately, part of this line is true.

We have to change it!

Together, we need to lay the foundation for an even stronger and richer and, of course, also more resilient Europe.

* * *

I am very happy to see that the defense industry is so well represented here today.

With the war going on in Europe, we face – and I know that everybody knows that now – we face the greatest security challenge since the end of the Second World War. Hybrid warfare and violations of NATO's airspace.

So, we have to be able to defend ourselves.

And the purpose of the informal European Council later on today is actually to assure that we can achieve that.

So, we need to translate military needs into very concrete deliveries from you.

Our ability to scale up production. We have to remove barriers and we have to deliver real capabilities. All that is very crucial.

So, to put it very shortly: If you do not succeed, then we will not succeed, and that cannot be the conclusion about Europe.

* * *

And we cannot wait for others to do the job for us as Europeans.

The era of buying cheap energy from somewhere, goods and security from abroad is over, and we need to take on the responsibility on our own shoulders.

That's the purpose of the meetings today, and I think we have started it very well out of – by being here.

So once again, thank you.