National cultural institutes with a permanent presence in Belgium have been cooperating together since the mid 1990s. In 1997 this cooperation was formalized with the establishment of CICEB (Consortium of the National Cultural Institutes of the European Countries in Belgium) as a non-profit organization under Belgian law. There were 7 members initially and this has now grown to 18 as of today.

In 2006 CICEB became EUNIC Brussels (European Union National Institutions of Culture) as part of a wider cooperation between national institutions of culture across Europe. Within this wider cooperation an association of heads of national cultural institutions was formed (EUNIC) and cooperation between clusters of national cultural institutes with a presence in capitals across Europe began to be formalized within the EUNIC framework.

This network currently consists of 37 EUNIC clusters in cities across Europe while the EUNIC heads membership currently comprises 29 national institutions of culture. In addition, where clusters of European national cultural institutions have an active presence in cities outside of Europe, these are also beginning to form part of the EUNIC network – eg. EUNIC New Delhi & EUNIC New York.