NNA - On February 20th 2013 ends the second term of the Romanian Presidency of EUNIC in Lebanon (European Union National Institutes for Culture). The Romanian Cultural Institute, through dr.Dan Stoenescu, cultural attaché of the Romanian Embassy to Beirut, held the presidency of EUNIC in Lebanon for 2012-2013, for a second time in a row.



EUNIC aims at establishing partnerships and networks amongst the European cultural institutes in different countries around the world.



The main objective of EUNIC in Lebanon is to improve the coordination between European Cultural centers, start new initiatives, organize joint activities and events, and respond collectively to European open calls for proposals in order to generate additional funding.



The members of the Lebanese cluster of EUNIC are - The British Council, the Goethe-Institut, the Romanian Cultural Institute, the Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Instituto Cervantes, the Danish Cultural Institute, the Institut français du Liban and the Serbian Embassy as associate member.
During the Romanian presidency, the Romanian Embassy to Beirut and the Romanian Cultural Institute together with the EUNIC partner institutes organized many cultural projects in Lebanon as well as contributed to the development of European projects in the Middle East and North Africa region.



In 2011 more than a 1,000 people turned out over the weekend of 14-15 May to attend the launching event of the EUNIC in Lebanon in Beirut's Sanayeh gardens. This first EUNIC project called Green Your Culture was themed around environmental issues, which were broadcast through theater plays and musical performances used to spread awareness.



Moreover, among the EUNIC projects of 2011 and 2012 was "Fête de la musique", a project coordinated by Institut français, promoting culture through music on June 21st in Beirut as well as in various Lebanese cities. Another annual event organized annually by EUNIC on September 26 was the European Day of Languages in order to celebrate plurilingualism and learning foreign languages through educational activities and games for young students in Beirut's municipal libraries.



On this occasion, the young students had the opportunity to get crash courses in English, French, German, Italian, Romanian, and Spanish. The event also included movies and interactive vocabulary games, all centered on plurilingualism.
Under the Romanian presidency, EUNIC participated in 2012 for the first time in the Salon du livre francophone (Francophone Book-fairs) presenting books from Romanian, German, Spanish, Danish and Serbian publishing houses in French.



At the 20th edition of this major cultural event, EUNIC members organized also activities and animations for the young readers. Between October 26th and November 4th the francophone book -fair had more than 50,000 visitors, among them over 20,000 students.
Furthermore, EUNIC in Lebanon was represented at the EUNIC regional Conference in Rabat, Morocco, in September 2011, and to the Euro-Mediterranean Forum on Creative Industries and Society, organized by the European cultural network at the Dead Sea, in Jordan, between the 13 and 15 of May 2012.



Both events were the launch pad of a long-term EUNIC Middle East and North Africa (MENA) project which will address Democratic Empowerment, Cultural Policy and Creative Economy. The aim is to support the creative sector in the MENA region to redefine cultural policies that respond to the changing socio-political context in the region, to demonstrate the potential of the creative industries, to increase and reshape the scope of cultural exchanges and to strengthen of competitiveness of the sector.
Furthermore, during the Romanian presidency, EUNIC in Lebanon hosted on November 15-16, the Regional Meeting of the European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC) clusters from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).



The meeting was attended by EUNIC members from the region including countries such as Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine and Tunisia. The regional meeting was also attended by EUNIC Global President Mrs. Delphine Borione, director general in the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Charles-Etienne Lagasse, EUNIC Vice-president and General Inspector for Wallonie-Bruxelles International (Belgium) as well as Andrei Marga, president of the Romanian Cultural Institute in Bucharest.
The purpose of this annual meeting was to share experiences and expertise of successful actions, to define joint projects and programming examples and to further good practice among the European cultural institutes working in the Arab World. Lebanese civil society actors were also present to the regional meeting aiming to get involved in EUNIC projects that are already running and to develop new common projects together with the European cultural network.
The EUNIC in Lebanon presidency for 2013/2014 will be held by Dr. Ulrich Nowak, Director of the Goethe Institute Lebanon, while the vice-president positions will be held by Barbara Hewitt, Director of the British Council Lebanon, and Aurelian Lechevallier, Director of "Institut français du Liban" (French Institute, Lebanon).



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