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Brussels: a first visit, a shared conviction
During his first visit to the European Commission’s headquarters on 26 January, the Director-General held three bilateral meetings with Commissioners whose portfolios sit at the heart of shared EU–UNESCO priorities: Hadja Lahbib (Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management), Dubravka Šuica (Commissioner for Mediterranean) and Glenn Micallef (Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture and Sport).
The meetings converged around one shared conviction: in challenging times, values-based multilateral cooperation is essential to advancing peace and prosperity. The partnership between UNESCO and the EU takes on strategic stakes. As two pillars of the rules-based order, UNESCO and the EU share values and objectives that must be defended and protected.
A long-standing partnership grounded in trust and shared values
As one of UNESCO’s most consequential and strategic partners, the European Union is both a leading contributor and a steadfast political ally for values-based multilateralism.
Since the establishment of UNESCO’s office in Brussels in 2011, followed by the signature of the UNESCO–EU Memorandum of Understanding in 2012, the EU has supported some 200 projects with global impact across all areas of UNESCO’s mandate. Today, the partnership represents over EUR 400 million in aggregated EU contributions, with a current portfolio of around 70 ongoing projects totalling more than EUR 170 million. In 2024, the European Commission ranked as UNESCO’s second-largest donor (USD 50.2 million mobilized), and in 2025 it remained among UNESCO’s top three contributors.
Beyond these figures, the EU’s support is notable for its breadth and consistency: it reflects a genuine commitment to UNESCO’s mandate by supporting initiatives across all UNESCO sectors, and by sustaining a diversified partnership that strengthens education, culture, science, and communication and information in a mutually reinforcing way.
Delivering together: EU–UNESCO cooperation for people and communities
The EU is a strong and trusted partner of UNESCO, and a driver for policy alignment and sustained engagement for UNESCO’s mandate worldwide. This solid partnership is committed to upholding and uplifting education, science and culture as foundations of dignity, resilience and opportunity.
With Commissioner Hadja Lahbib, the Director-General discussed strengthening cooperation in crises and emergencies — from preparedness and disaster risk reduction to early recovery. The exchange emphasized the added value of UNESCO in leveraging culture, education, science and the media sector to support resilience in crisis situations. Specifically in the fields of education in emergencies, information integrity in fragile contexts and leveraging science for preparedness and disaster risk reduction, UNESCO’s expertise can support the sustainability of humanitarian action.
They also reaffirmed shared priorities on gender equality and education-based action against racism and discrimination, notably in the context of the new EU Anti-Racism Strategy which highlighted ongoing joint EU-UNESCO initiatives on addressing antisemitism through education in Europe, and a new project launched in January 2026 on Addressing prejudice, racism and hatred through and in education.
Commissioner Dubravka Šuica and the Director-General discussed how the EU–UNESCO partnership can be taken further under the Pact for the Mediterranean, and the multiple synergies between the Euro-Mediterranean agenda and UNESCO’s mandate and unique network of assets in the MENA region. Their exchange underscored a shared determination to step up culture-driven development, while advancing education, skills and scientific cooperation across the region.
Drawing on long-standing cooperation in the region, both sides highlighted the clear proof of concept —and the strong return on investment— of EU–UNESCO cooperation, including the way culture- and heritage-driven recovery can strengthen resilience and social cohesion by linking culture with skills development, employment opportunities and livelihoods, especially for youth. This is illustrated by flagship initiatives such as the UNESCO-led large-scale recovery and reconstruction activities in Old City of Mosul and in Basra in Iraq, where EU’s support helped create 7,700 jobs and trained 2,800 youth through TVET in heritage professions while restoring emblematic heritage. In Yemen, through the Cash-for-Work initiative, cooperation helped create more than 3,550 jobs and rehabilitate around 420 historic houses, boosting youth livelihoods and women’s participation in the cultural economy. In Iraq, EU support helps make education a pillar of post-conflict recovery. UNESCO and UNICEF are working with the Ministry of Education to strengthen more inclusive, safer and resilient learning systems through the Equitable Quality Education in Iraq (iTALEEM) programme – which since its launch in 2024 has benefited 1,366 teachers (52% women) from 684 schools through training and helped extend the Education Management Information System (EMIS) coverage to 5,279 schools – nearly 20% of federal Iraq’s schools.
With Commissioner Glenn Micallef, exchanges centred on deepening cooperation on culture and youth, including the potential of sport, sports ethics and youth engagement in the run-up to the 2026 European Week of Sport, as well as concrete ways to advance the Culture Compass for Europe – from protecting artistic freedom and cultural rights, to strengthening competitiveness and investment in the cultural and creative industries and expanding international cultural cooperation. Commissioner Micallef also highlighted UNESCO’s unique role as the leading multilateral partner with an explicit mandate to advance culture for development.
This builds on longstanding engagement with the EU in support to culture, reflected in the EU’s active engagement at MONDIACULT 2025 in Barcelona, where Commissioner Micallef represented the EU and took part in the launch of the Global Report on Cultural Policies, financed by the European Union – reinforcing shared efforts to elevate culture as a strategic dimension of global policy, including in the post-2030 agenda.
Looking ahead: milestone anniversaries and upcoming Strategic Dialogue
The visit opens a landmark year marking 15 years of UNESCO’s official presence in Brussels, following the establishment of UNESCO’s Liaison and Representation Office to the European Union in 2011. In 2027, UNESCO and the European Union will also mark 15 years since the partnership was formalized with the signing of the EU–UNESCO Memorandum of Understanding (2012).
This momentum will be reinforced by the 2nd EU–UNESCO Strategic Dialogue (Senior Officials Meeting) on 24 March 2026, hosted at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, with a thematic focus on crisis and fragility. UNESCO and the European Union will continue working together to ensure that shared values translate into tangible results for people—and to strengthen resilience where it is needed most.
READ MORE: https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/unesco-director-general-khaled-el-enany-paid-his-first-official-visit-brussels-reaffirm-strategic
