The current Chair of the Board of Trustees of the European Museum Forum is Goranka Horjan, the Director of Museums of Hvratsko Zagorje, Croatia. The Board of Trustees supervises all activities that the European Museum Forum does. The Panel of Judges consists of professionals in museum sector from all over Europe. This Panel sizes up candidates for the annual the European Museum of the Year Award. The Panel talks over, considers, arguments on, and eventually chooses the winners of the Award. A network of information is provided by National Correspondents to bridge museums all over Europe. Developments and activities in regional museums are informed to the EMF to spread to a wider audience.
The European Museum Forum is overseen by the Council of Europe. It is a nonprofit organization that is registered in the United Kingdom. The Forum is the most important organization in Europe that seeks to develop higher standards of public quality of museums in the European continent. The aforementioned EMYA is one proof of the Forum’s focus on appreciating museums that meet the standards. The Award ceremony has been conducted annually since 1977 and prizes have been awarded to museums of exceptional public quality and innovation. There are museums in all 47 members of the Council of Europe and they all can join the competition so long as those museums are newly opened or have modernized or expanded themselves in the past two years.
Kenneth Hudson established the Forum in 1977 in the hope of inciting interchange of ideas on international level and creating networks of inspiration. EMYA is one of the main award handed out by the EMF—the other one being the Council of Europe Museum Prize. Both awards have been deemed effective in keeping up with and pinpointing changes that museums all over Europe undergo.