Message of the President of EUPSA

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

When I was elected as President of EUPSA in July 2002, I got the mission on my way to adapt the EUPSA structure according to the new political situation in Europe.

The EUPSA was in the past a kind of a loose connection of National European Paediatric Surgical Associations. Nevertheless, this was a very useful structure, with the purpose to support the establishment of good relations between departments and to intensify the friendship between colleagues from the east and the west. With the latest change of the political situation in Europe the movement has come to adapt that structure of EUPSA. The plan is the foundation of an new European Paediatric Surgeons Association, now based on individual members instead of associations. The European Congress in Tours offers an excellent occasion to decide and start with this new EUPSA.

The mission of the association shall be to maintain and promote the highest possible clinical standards of surgical care for paediatric and adolescent patients in all European countries, to enhance the capacity of its members to discover, disseminate and apply new knowledge to the benefit of our patients, and to follow the highest ethical standards within the field of paediatric surgery. Briefly, these goals shall be achieved by organisation of European Congresses on a regular basis, by elaboration and publication of good practice standards, by promoting European research projects, by supporting the members in their public health activities related to prevention, diagnosis and therapeutical measures in paediatric surgery, and last but not least by intensifying the relations of the EUPSA with the non-European Paediatric Surgical Associations.

Until now a brief outline of the future structure was distributed to all EUPSA delegates and has been discussed by a large audience during the 15th International Symposium of Paediatric Surgical Research in Graz. Based on the feedback of these discussions, I would now like to propose a mission statement, statutes and by-laws for discussion in European Paediatric Surgical Associations. By the help of Prof. Z. Zachariou an EUPSA-Homepage has been established (www.eupsa2003.de). The new statutes will be published in that Homepage. I would like to ask all of you to write us your critics and suggestions. Thereafter, the finalised Statutes shall be distributed to all national delegates of EUPSA in March for the final discussion process within the national associations. The definite decision shall be made during the European Congress in Tours, which could be thereby the starting point of the new EUPSA.

I would like to wish all of you a very good and happy new year and we need altogether a promising new beginning of the European Paediatric Surgeons Association.

With my kindest regards,

Michael E. Höllwarth, January, 2003