The European Union Geriatric Medicine Society's mission:

1. To develop geriatric medicine in the member states of the European Union as an independent specialty caring for all older people with age-related disease
2. To support that these services become available to all citizens of the European Union
3. To promote education and continuing professional development, and in particular a biennial scientific meeting
4. In conjunction with the Section of Geriatric Medicine of the EUMS, to promote geriatric medicine to the European Commission and Parliament
5. To promote evidence-based guidelines for the most efficacious preventive and treatment strategies for older people in the European Union

The mass ageing of our populations has been one of the crowning achievements of the end of the second millennium. This ageing has also brought challenges in terms of a new order of complexity in ensuring the health of the ageing populations. Geriatric medicine has developed to meet this challenge, and has been proven to be an efficient and cost-effective development.

A number of organisations have been supporting a European profile for geriatric medicine and momentum has been building up over the last decade. It was felt, however, that there was still a lack of a central focus for continuing professional development and academic matters in the European Union.

The first group met to discuss the EUGMS in Sept 1999 in Paris. After a number of meetings at different European cities, the European Union Geriatric Medicine Society was finally created, and was launched in Paris in August 2001, when its 1 st Congress took place.

For further reading click on the EUGMS Position Statement in the left column.