Italy was elected for a two-year term to the Board of Directors of the European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC), the network that promotes the coordination of the European Union Member States’ institutes of culture operating abroad. In the Union, Italy is represented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (together with the network of Cultural Institutes) and the Dante Alighieri Society (with its own network of Committees abroad).
EUNIC, through the “clusters” that unite the institutes of culture of the EU Member Countries in a large number of places around the world, performs a precious role in promoting cultural cooperation between the EU and Third Countries, and will constitute the executive arm of the cultural diplomacy activities promoted by the Union, as set out in the Communiqué released last year on the issue by the Commission and the External Action Service.
Italy’s election to the Board of EUNIC – last 8 June – represents a significant recognition of the prominent role that our Country plays in the area of culture and of our constant effort to enhance the cultural sphere of the European Union’s external action. Indeed Italy, during its semester of presidency of the EU in 2014, laid the grounds for the strategy outlined in last year’s Communiqué and then gave a decisive impulse in proclaiming 2018 European Year of Cultural Heritage. The European Cultural Forum, to be organised next December in Milan, will relaunch the Year of Cultural Heritage, further confirming Italy’s commitment to acknowledge culture as an instrument of sustainable development, dialogue and peace.
