The Focal Points meeting is a yearly moment for colleagues working as EUNIC contact person in each member organisation to meet live, strengthen peer-to-peer relations, gain insights into current topics, key initiatives and challenges faced by other members of the network at home and to shape EUNIC's programme activities together. Each year, the meeting takes place in a different location, allowing participants to discover the local context of member organisations. Co-hosted by the Croatian Ministry of Culture and Media this time, 27 colleagues representing 26 EUNIC member organisations came together in Zagreb, Croatia on 25 and 26 April 2024.

Focal Points are a vital tier of the EUNIC network, allowing for close and regular two-way exchanges between the EUNIC office, EUNIC member headquarters and local branches including clusters worldwide. Coming together to share their experiences, needs and engagement as members allows to strategically discuss future focus topics and priorities of the network as well as to continuously develop EUNIC's shared programme.

The Cluster Fund has such great value - only if we work together. Such a fund doesn’t exist elsewhere and it deserves increased funding.

Nenad Bogdanovic, Organization for European Programmes and Cultural Relations (Cyprus)

In light of the need to create a new Strategic Framework for the network from 2025, a special focus of this meeting hence laid on the evolution and future of EUNIC's core programme areas as well as ways of rethinking colleague's possiblities of engagement, ownership and reviewed ways of communication. Additionally, a set of communication assets in the framework of the upcoming European Parliament elections in June 2024, addressing more widely the role and values of culture in democracy, was presented and discussed.

Supported by a range of Focal Points actively engaged in different EUNIC initiatives, the EUNIC office updated colleagues on recent programme areas such as the cluster network, the Mobility Scheme and Knowledge Sharing Workshops. Among other things, the Cluster Fund was hailed as EUNIC's most important strategic instruments to strengthen the worldwide network: "It has such great value - only if we work together. Such a fund doesn’t exist elsewhere and it deserves increased funding", as expressed by Nenad Bogdanovic, Focal Point at the Cyprus Organization for European Programmes and Cultural Relations, and recent jury member for the Cluster Fund. Special guest Marijana Cvetković, long-term jury member of European Spaces of Culture, shared insights and thoughts on the development of the project and its impact especially on the creation and consolidation of local communities.

With European Spaces of Culture, I am pleased to see projects that focus on profits in human relations rather than monetary, and better conditions for cultural workers, which are so meaningful for the local context.

Marijana Cvetković, European Spaces of Culture jury member

In continuation with EUNIC's recent engagement on the topic of climate change, the two authors Eva Balaban and Maria Elena De Matteo, commissioned to develop a set of tools to support the network in addressing the climate crisis through cultural relations, presented the current state of research, received some valuable feedback and exchanged on ways of implementation throughout the network.

A dedicated panel discussion on the local context organised by Croatian colleagues allowed participants to gain a more detailed understanding of the activities, challenges and key topics of the Croatian Ministry of Culture and Media and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Focal Points meeting was also the occasion to prepare the next EUNIC General Assembly, which will take place in Bucharest, Romania on 19 and 20 June 2024. It will be co-hosted by the Romanian Cultural Institute under the incoming EUNIC presidency of Liviu Jicman.