Alzheimer Europe is pleased to welcome three new member associations, a new Board of Directors for the 2026-2028 term, and to present its 2025 Annual and Financial Report. These are just three of the important outcomes from the organisation's Annual General Meeting (AGM), which took place on 30 June 2026, in Luxembourg. At the AGM, 36 full members out of 41 were present or represented, ensuring the meeting had quorum. Alzheimer Europe staff and Board members were also present, together with various other guest observers.
Rosário Zincke dos Reis (Portugal), Chairperson of Alzheimer Europe, moderated the meeting, with the agenda including an in-depth review of the 2025-2026 activities and projects of Alzheimer Europe (presented by Honorary Secretary Lorène Gilly from France), as well as the finances of the organisation (presented by outgoing Honorary Treasurer Marco Blom from the Netherlands). As has been the case since the beginning of 2022, our core activities in 2025 were funded by an operating grant awarded by the European Commission's Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) programme, ensuring we can continue providing a voice to people affected by dementia, making dementia a European priority, changing perceptions and combatting stigma, raising awareness of brain health and prevention, strengthening the European dementia movement, and supporting dementia research.
AGM delegates reviewed and unanimously adopted Alzheimer Europe's 2025 Annual and Financial Report and the report is now available on our website, as a PDF publication. Printed copies will be available at our Annual Conference in Dublin in October.
Read our 2025 Annual and Financial Report, here: https://bit.ly/AE2025AnnualReport
Three organisations which had previously applied for membership of Alzheimer Europe were then put to a vote, and the AGM voted unanimously to welcome all three of them - two with provisional member status and one as a full member. Alzheimer Europe warmly welcomes them, bringing our membership to 44 members from 39 countries. The three new members are:
Latvijas Alcheimera asociācija (Latvia) - provisional member
NVO Futura (Montenegro) - provisional member
Alzheimerfelagið (Faroe Islands) - full member.
On the agenda too were the elections for the Board of Directors. The AGM took a moment to say farewell and thank you to Marco Blom (Netherlands), who has served on the Board for eight years and is stepping down from his position as Honorary Treasurer, after taking his retirement from Alzheimer Nederland earlier this year. Jean Georges, Executive Director, thanked Marco on behalf of Alzheimer Europe, for his vital contributions to the organisation over the years and for his friendship. He will be sorely missed!
Following Marco Blom's departure, Andy Heffernan (Ireland) who has been a member of the Board since 2022, has been voted in as the new Treasurer. The other office bearers remain unchanged.
The new Board of Alzheimer Europe for 2026-2028 is comprised of the following people:
Office bearers
• Chairperson: Rosário Zincke dos Reis (Portugal)
• Vice-Chairperson: Mario Possenti (Italy)
• Honorary Secretary: Lorène Gilly (France)
• Honorary Treasurer: Andy Heffernan (Ireland) - newly appointed (Board member since 2022)
Members
• Thanos Chatzikostopoulos (Greece) - new member
• Edyta Ekwinska (Poland) - new member
• Wiesje van der Flier (Netherlands)
• Friederike de Maeyer (Austria) - new member
• Martina Mátlová (Czech Republic)
• Mary-Frances Morris (Scotland, United Kingdom)
• Katariina Suomu (Finland)
• René Thyrian (Germany).
Congratulations to all of them! A big thank you, also to outgoing board members Stefanie Becker (Switzerland), and René Friederici (Luxembourg) for their vital contributions. They will be missed by everyone.
The new terms of office of the European Working Group of People with Dementia (EWGPWD) and of the European Dementia Carers Working Group) have begun following the 2026 AGM, and the members, chairpersons and vice-chairpersons of both groups will be announced soon. Both the chairperson of the EWGPWD and chairperson of the EDCWG will be ex-officio members of the Alzheimer Europe Board, with full voting rights.
Kevin Quaid (Ireland), current Chairperson of the EWGPWD and Trevor Salomon (United Kingdom, England), current Chairperson of the EDCWG each gave a speech at the AGM, sharing the excellent work of their respective working groups over the past year and thanking Alzheimer Europe for its support and its commitment to ensuring the voices of people with dementia and carers are heard at the European level.
A big thank you to all members who attended our 2026 AGM in Luxembourg, for the great discussions and for using their voices and their votes, thus helping to shape the future of our organisation and ensure our important collaborative work continues!
