Welcome to the Royal House’s annual report for 2016. The annual report describes the work of the Royal House during the year and the royal family’s activities as well as other doings in a number of areas, such as business and culture, humanitarian and social initiatives, sport and health, the defence, research and education as well as foundation and award distributions.

HM The Queen and HRH Prince Henrik were hosts when Mexico’s president, HE Enrique Peña Nieto, and First Lady Angélica Rivera came for a state visit on the days of 13-14 April accompanied by a business delegation of 29 companies. The state visit focused on climate-, energy- and environmental technology, health and welfare as well as agriculture and food products.  

The Queen carried out three cruises on the Royal Yacht Dannebrog. In June, there was a journey to the Faroe Islands with visits at, among other places, schools, retirement homes, companies and cultural institutions. In her speech at a banquet at The Nordic House in Tórshavn, The Queen praised the strong Faroese culture with these words: “The greatest riches of the Faroe Islands are not the fish in the sea or the potential oil underground – no, it is, and always has been, the Faroese people themselves.”

The year’s summer cruises went first to the municipalities of Lolland and Varde and later to the municipalities of Odsherred, Favrskov and Langeland.

After more than 40 years of work for Denmark and Danish interests, HRH Prince Henrik retired in 2016. At the same time, The Prince got more time to devote himself to his passion for art, literature and music.

During the year, The Crown Prince Couple led two overseas business promotional campaigns. One was in Saudi Arabia and Qatar with a business delegation of 44 companies and several interest groups, and the other was in the USA with approximately 20 Danish companies participating.

As a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), HRH The Crown Prince was present throughout the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and participated in a number of meetings and events within the IOC framework during the year. Another focus area for The Crown Prince was increasing the cooperation between the Danish business community and Danish entrepreneurs, among other things by being the patron of DenmarkBridge, which is a new organisation with the objective of strengthening the bridge between the business community in this country and development taking place in Silicon Valley.

The world’s largest conference about women’s equality took place in May in Copenhagen, where HRH The Crown Princess, as patron, helped to focus attention on creating a better life for girls and women. The conference concluded after four days, and the work continues. At the UN General Assembly six months later, The Crown Princess helped to launch a new international campaign for the health and rights of girls and women.

HRH Prince Joachim began a new position as a special advisor to the defence chief in November 2015. From his office at the Citadel in Copenhagen, the Prince is now part of a group which works on rethinking cooperation between the society and the business community.

In 2016, HRH Princess Marie was attached to the Danish Emergency Management Agency as a special project staff member with the task of helping to develop a new effort in which the goal is to strengthen local networks and citizens so that individuals become capable of handling and preventing disasters. The task is part of the work on the National Prevention Strategy. Several years ago, the Princess went through emergency preparedness training in the operational tasks.

In connection with her engagement in girl guide and girl scout life, Princess Benedikte took part in The Olave Baden-Powell Society’s board meeting and annual members’ meeting in Pune, India in 2016. There, the Princess visited local girl guides and partners. The Princess also participated in the opening of the CMT tourism trade fair in Stuttgart, Germany and visited the Danish stands at the fair.

As in previous years, the royal family’s official duties included the reception of audience-seekers and ambassadors as well as attention to the royal foundations, which in the past year have distributed funds to projects of cultural, scientific, educational, social and humanitarian character. In addition, the application and response procedures for the royal foundations were digitalised in 2016.

2016 was also the year when the Royal House entered social media with official pages on Facebook and Instagram. The media use of the Danes is changing, and the Royal House wants to be where the Danes are. The stories about the Royal House and the work of the royal family are, to a greater degree, told directly to the Danish people through text, pictures and videos. During the year, the Royal House’s website was also relaunched. Now, the website, together with the Royal House’s profiles on the social media and the existing YouTube channel, make up the Royal House’s digital media platforms.