Grigoris Stratakos
President, EABIP

Dear friends and Colleagues, On behalf of the executive committee it gives me great pleasure to welcome you warmly to our Association which celebrates this year its 20th anniversary (inaugurated by pioneers such as H. Becker, Ch. Bolliger, F.Herth, L.Freitag, J. Strausz and many more back in 2002)!

During these 20 years, EABIP has not ceased to grow, flourish and mature thanks to the dedication and inspired work of the previous EC members such as Herve Dutau, Semra Bilaceraglu and most recently Lorenzo Corbetta, Maria Simon and Mohamed Munavvar who currently serves as immediate past President.

The principal priorities of EABIP have always been and still remain to promote Education, Training and Research in all aspects of Interventional Pulmonology.

To achieve our objectives, we have enhanced our educational activities, including conferences, courses and workshops throughout Europe and beyond. The last European Congress for Bronchology and IP in Athens was the first big international physical/hybrid meeting after the COVID pandemic and enjoyed huge success and participation of many colleagues from all around the world, stimulating knowledge exchange and clinical collaboration/ research.

We have long established a close working relationship with WABIP and a number of national respiratory and bronchoscopy societies. Our recently developed interactive and informative website is more user friendly and is updated on a regular basis

Our 20^th anniversary coincides with a period of great evolution and expansion in the field of Interventional Pulmonology, stretching across a plethora of subspecialties including the small peripheral lung lesions diagnostic and therapeutic approach and robotic bronchoscopy, the precise staging techniques for malignancy, the bronchoscopic therapies for emphysema, the management of a variety of pleural pathologies, the novel tracheobronchial stents placement and live endo microscopy to name just a few.

Development and implementation of procedural training and assessment strategies, recognition of centers of excellence throughout Europe and communication of their academic curricula to all our members thus building a European Web of Training Centers in IP, are among our priorities for the very near future.

None of the above ambitious endpoints could be realized without your active and energetic participation. Together we can make the difference.

I look very much forward to welcoming you all in our next Annual General Meeting in Marseilles during the WCBIP next month.

Until then, please accept my warmest regards and the very best of wishes.

Grigoris Stratakos
President EABIP

Objectives

Promotion of a high standard in clinical practice, education and research in diagnostic and therapeutic interventional pulmonology including bronchoscopy and thoracoscopy as well as in the education and training of endoscopy staff
Exchange of knowledge and experience with related national and international associations. This will be achieved for example by launching joint international multicentre research projects, establishing procedural and training standards, and a unified terminology to improve communication
To organize regular meetings in association with various national and international organizations
To support regional conferences, symposia or workshops
To promote the establishment of local national branches of the EABIP in Europe
To encourage manuscript contributions to Respiration, this will serve as the organ of publication for the Association