The 15th Congress of the European Federation of the Neurological Societies (EFNS), held in Budapest, Hungary, from 10–13 September 2011 was again a great success with more than 5,000 participants and approximately 2,000 abstract submissions.
The 15th Congress of the European Federation of the Neurological Societies (EFNS), held in Budapest, Hungary, from 10–13 September 2011 was again a great success with more than 5,000 participants and approximately 2,000 abstract submissions.
But perhaps the most important event in 2011 is the agreement of the EFNS and the European Neurological Society (ENS) to combine their efforts and to form one united European neurology community. At the opening session in Budapest both Presidents and the Secretaries-General officially signed the EFNS-ENS cooperation agreement and from 2015 onwards, the new society will be called the European Academy of Neurology (EAN). The EAN will represent all the national neurological societies as well as individual members. The collaboration with the Pan-African and the Pan-Arabic societies will be maintained.
The EAN will have its first congress in Germany, in Berlin or in Munich at the end of August 2015. This will be the major neurological event in Europe and perhaps one of the most important congresses for neurologists of the whole world. This congress must attract many participants, not only for the high scientific quality of their scientific programmes and of their teaching courses, but also because of the cultural and historical attraction of the different European cities, where the congresses will take place.
In 2014, a common EFNS-ENS congress will be held in Istanbul, Turkey and afterwards both societies will definitely transfer all their belongings and duties to the EAN. The main office will be in Vienna with side offices in Brussels and in Basel. The directory board will be democratically elected by a general assembly representing the national societies and the representative individual members.
The EAN will be the official representative of European neurologists with the following objectives:
• to strengthen the standard and availability of neurological services;
• to advance the development of neurology as the major medical specialty caring for patients with neurological disorders;
• to encourage collaboration between European national neurological societies;
• to strengthen collaboration between clinical neurology and related professional and lay organisations;
• to support neurological research, encourage research collaboration, and promote dissemination of research results;
• to strengthen the standard, availability and equality of neurological education for neurologists and allied health professionals;
• to raise awareness in the lay public, related healthcare providers and policymakers about the burden and cost of neurological disorders and the benefits which clinical neurology can bring; and
• to collaborate with international, national and regional neurological associations and related international health organisations.
The EAN will become an important instrument for the recognition of neurological disorders as one of the major disease burdens in Europe. European Neurological Review will help to spread the scientific progresses in diagnosis and treatment of neurological diseases that will be presented at the EAN congresses and will be helpful in the advertising of neurology in Europe.
