Members unanimously re-elected Hanna Lämsä, Director of the Finnish Cultural and Academic Institutes, in her renewed mandate, and Eugene Downes, Cultural Director at Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, to serve two-year terms on the board, both bringing extensive experience at the intersection of cultural policy and foreign affairs.

Drawing on more than 30 years of experience spanning arts and diplomacy, Eugene Downes has served in the Irish foreign service, worked as a music broadcaster on Irish public radio, served as inaugural director of Culture Ireland, and later returned to government as cultural programme manager for the foreign ministry and cultural adviser to the President of Ireland.

EUNIC has a unique and invaluable role to play in supporting the EU's collective international cultural relations ambitions, particularly at a moment of profound global change and multiple paradigm shifts... Now is a vital time for clarity in our thinking on ICR. As Europe, we need to be thinking geo-culturally as well as geo-politically and geo-economically.

Eugene Downes, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Ireland

Hanna Lämsä, first elected to the board in June 2024, has played an active role in advancing EUNIC's strategic priorities, through the EUNIC Climate Action and Cultural Relations initiative, engagement in policy and advocacy work, and support for knowledge exchange across the network. Most recently, she co-hosted the EUNIC Focal Points and Clusters Meeting in Helsinki.

There is still much to accomplish. That will require more strategic cooperation, more visionary thinking, and the courage to question established structures. I believe we should aim high. To set our sights any lower would be to give up on what we are capable of.

Hanna Lämsä, Finnish Cultural and Academic Institutes

EUNIC Vice-President Julija Reklaitė, Director of the Lithuanian Culture Institute, and newly elected board member Eugene Downes represent institutions from the two countries that will hold the upcoming Presidencies of the Council of the European Union: Ireland from July to December 2026, followed by Lithuania from January to June 2027. This alignment offers opportunities to further elevate the role of culture within international relations across European policy discussions.

More broadly, discussions during the General Assembly reflected the growing importance of EUNIC as a space for peer learning, solidarity and collective reflection among members navigating a rapidly changing global environment.

EUNIC becomes a space to reality-check... to hold on to some sense of direction together. There is something powerful in that shared uncertainty: connection, openness, and the ability to think forward together.

Julija Reklaitė, Lithuanian Culture Institute

EUNIC Board of Directors

• Gitte Zschoch (ifa - Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen), President
• Julija Reklaitė (Lithuanian Culture Institute), Vice-President
• Eugene Downes (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Ireland)
• Hanna Lämsä (Finnish Cultural and Academic Institutes)
• Carmen Noguero Galilea (Instituto Cervantes)
• Olga Wysocka (Adam Mickiewicz Institute)

Membership of the Board is held by heads of EUNIC members on a personal rather than organisational basis. Board members are elected for a two-year term and may serve up to two consecutive terms.

EUNIC members also welcomed the confirmation that Gitte Zschoch will continue to serve the full duration of her mandate as EUNIC President following her appointment as Secretary General of the Goethe-Institut.

Find out more about EUNIC's Board of Directors and governance structure here.