Message from the President

Dear Colleagues,

When some of the leading surgeons in Europe decided to merge the two existing colorectal associations (ECCP and EACP) and started the new scientific society ESCP (Bologna 2005), many of us definitely felt that something important was coming to life which could really change the scientific relationship between all countries across Europe in the field of coloproctology.

Although at that time, great enthusiasm was evident, nobody could have reasonably anticipated that only a few years later the ESCP would have achieved such a prestigious role in the international scientific community. More than 1,000 delegates at ESCP’s last meeting in Prague are living proof of this status, together with the highest standard of presentations at all meetings as acknowledged by everybody in attendance.

This could never been possible without the efforts of outstanding personalities such as John Nicholls, Lars Påhlman, Andrew Shorthouse, Adam Dziki, Mike Parker, Anders Mellgren, Najib Haboubi, Ronan O’Connell, Thomas Skřička, Paul Antoine Lehur, Emmanuel Tiret, Zoran Krivokapic, Alexander Engel, Stephan Post and many others who believed in the project from the beginning, and whom we can never adequately thank for attracting more and more people to join the Society.

It is therefore a great honour for me to have been elected the 5th President of ESCP, which I take not only as an acknowledgement of the small contribution I made to its foundation, but also as a great challenge to try to further improve the high standards of our Society.

I can only promise to devote myself wholeheartedly to the task in the coming year; I am sure that with the fundamental support of the Board and Committee, we can fulfil the requirements of our members.

My ambition would be to strengthen European unity so that every member from each and every European country will feel at home in our community and free to report his work in a friendly atmosphere, to the ultimate goal of improving the quality of patient care and the progress of the science.

Finally, I would like to invite you all to the next meeting in Sorrento which I have the honour to organize in 2010 during the year of my presidency. It is a privilege for Italy and Italian colorectal surgeons to host such a distinguished assembly and we will do our best to demonstrate to you the warmth of our hospitality, not least of all with an element of surprise at the conference dinner!

With best wishes,
Giovanni Romano
President ESCP