ELPA's aimis to promote the interests of people with liver disease and in particular:

• tohighlight the size of the problem;
• topromote awareness and prevention;
• toaddress the low profile of liver disease as compared to other areas of medicinesuch as heart disease;
• to shareexperience of successful initiatives;
• to workwith professional bodies such as EASL and with the EU to ensure that treatmentand care are harmonised across Europe to the highest standards.

ELPAemerged from a desire amongst European liver patient groups to share theirexperiences of the often very different approaches adopted in differentcountries. In June 2004, 13 patient groups from 10 European and MediterraneanBasin countries met to create the association. ELPA was formally launched inParis on April 14th 2005 during the annual conference of the EuropeanAssociation for the Study of the Liver (EASL) and now has 21 members from 17countries.

Thissection contains our Mandate and our Social Charter. You willalso find our Code of Conduct, as well as a list of sponsors in the Supportand Grants section.