International relations

The City of Copenhagen works internationally to improve the service to our citizens and companies. It is our aim to create an attractive city through the exchange of best practices at both a European and international level. As the Capital in Denmark Copenhagen has special international obligations and possibilities. The target of our international effort is to emphasize Copenhagen's position as a regional center in Northern Europe and to strengthen our image as a center of a sustainable development of the human, cultural and economic resources.

The EU is an important partner in our international work, and as a consequence the City of Copenhagen opened a EU office in Brussels in 1992. The office represents Copenhagen in relation to the EU institutions and serves as a liason between EU and the administrations of City of Copenhagen.

Investments and Tourists
Copenhagen is an international metropolis and we believe that our city and the surrounding region have a lot to offer business and tourists alike. In collaboration with local and regional partners, we have set up Copenhagen Capacity to attract investments to the region and Wonderful Copenhagen to attract tourists from all over the world.

There is a lot going on in our city Copenhagen is a great city for hosting large conferences and festivals, as well as sporting and music events. We did this successfully with the MTV Music Awards in 2006, and in 2009 Copenhagen has already hosted the World OutGames -the largest gay and lesbian sporting event in the world in the summer followed by the International Olympic Committee Session and congress in the autumn. Now it is time for the UN Climate Conference in December, where heads of state from all over the world will meet to decide on common procedures to fight global warming.

To help attract large events to Copenhagen and help the organisers of large events, we have created Copenhagen Eventures.

Having a say and learning from others
Copenhagen strives to be an international city with an international outlook. We believe that, as a city, we can get better at resolving problems by learning how other large international cities found solutions to similar issues and also promote the things that we do well in Copenhagen to other large cities. With this in mind, Copenhagen participates in several international networks and organisations. Two of the most important are Eurocities and C40. Copenhagen has had a seat on the board for many years and Mayor Frank Jensen will be President of Eurocities until November 2012. In C40 Copenhagen works together with major global cities to prevent climate change.

Representing the City of Copenhagen
On a political level, the Lord Mayor, Frank Jensen, represents the city externally. Six other mayors support the Lord Mayor. They represent political parties and are each responsible for a different City Council administration.

There are two Deputy Chairmen of the City Council, who also have important responsibilities with regards to representing the city on an international level: Mrs Mona Heiberg and Mr. Jesper Christensen. Mrs Mona Heiberg is a member of the international committee in Local Government Denmark, she also has a seat in the EU’s Committee of the Regions and represents Copenhagen on the Eurocities executive committee.