Your Majesty,
Your Royal Highness, the Prince Consort, Your Royal Highness, the Crown Prince , Your Royal Highness the Crown Princess , Your Royal Highness, Prince Joachim, Your Royal Highness, Princess Benedikte, Prime Minister of Denmark and members of the Danish Government, Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen.

Tillykke on this very special occasion! It is a great privilege for the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Kingdom of Denmark to celebrate this Jubilee with Your Majesty and the Royal Family.
During the last forty years the Danish people have identified the image and identity of Denmark with their Queen. Several generations of Danes have been born and grown up during Your Majesty’s reign, respecting and admiring Your Majesty

One of the first things we diplomats learn from the Danes when we arrive is to listen carefully to Her Majesty’s New Year’s speech, because everyone in the Danish society follows it carefully, discuss it and the Queen’s words become the reference for the year that has passed and the future to come.
The last forty years have witnessed dramatic changes around the world and Denmark has not been immune to them. Denmark has been closely involved in these transformations and has enthusiastically embraced globalization. 

The Royal Family has always been an essential factor of the engagement with the world. All our countries which have had the privilege of hosting either a State visit or the official visit of one of the members of the Royal Family have witnessed the deep knowledge and the sensibility that all of them have towards our people, our countries and our cultures while, at the same time, presenting the best of Danish culture, creativity and entrepreneurship. This has been highly appreciated.

Your Majesty, 2012 is a year of celebrations for Denmark, Your 40th anniversary of the accession to the throne, the recent birth of a Princess who, together with the seven other grandchildren, will enrich the family life of the Royal Family, and the Danish Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
We are all certain that Your Majesty, together with His Royal Highness the Prince Consort and the rest of your Family, will think of this year as an exceptional one. When you so do, we hope that this dinner will be remembered, as well as the silver tray with an inscription from the Diplomatic Corps that we presented to Your Majesty tonight. 

In forty years the world has changed, Denmark has evolved but the Queen of Denmark has always been there as a moral reference, central to Danish identity. For all the happiness for the years to come, may I propose a toast to Queen Margrethe II, His Royal Highness the Prince Consort and the Royal Family.
Skål!