Publishing these abstracts in an international journal of large circulation represents a commitment of the organisers of the European congress towards all colleagues that decided to present their original work at our meeting. It aims at promoting our discipline and to further stimulate the quality of the scientific work of European epidemiologists.

There is a growing recognition that public health and epidemiologic research, along with other social and population based approaches to health research, are not valued and funded as they deserve. As Rodolfo Saracci recently emphasised with respect to the European Union Sixth Framework Program and the Public Health Programme (placed under the Health and Consumer Protection Directorate of the European Commission), the situation is far from reassuring and “represents a net regression in respect to the preceding five framework programmes, each of which provided specific room for research in epidemiology and public health”.¹ Epidemiology has come of age and has proven its importance in understanding health and disease related events or its contribution to improve human health. A meeting of European epidemiologists can be a major opportunity to affirm the societal and scientific contributions of the discipline, to confront ideas and local ways of approaching the problems, or to look for opportunities for cooperative work. The congress is also a new opportunity to bridge “worlds” and “levels” of knowledge in the often fragmented world of science—as epidemiology can complement and help to integrate so many disciplines related to human health.² We hope the meeting will also be a fruitful and pleasant occasion for Europeans from different nationalities to get closer among ourselves, and with colleagues from other areas of …