Dear congress participant,

It is a pleasure to welcome you to the 14th World Congress of the EAPC in Copenhagen. Palliative Care practice is complex, challenging and developing rapidly in response to escalating international need. Its success depends on building bridges between different professional and non-professional groups, disciplines, cultures, regions and continents. The theme of the 14th World Congress therefore is “building bridges”.

With this theme the EAPC also continues to strive for better access to palliative care for all those who need it, across the globe. To bridge the gap between suffering and palliative care the EAPC launched, in Prague 2013, a petition to urge governments to relieve suffering and ensure the right to palliative care https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/The_Prague_Charter_Relieving_suffering. This petition has been signed by more than 7.500 people, and we hope that this number can be increased further during this congress! Please sign if you have not already done so, and encourage your colleagues to do so.

In this 2015 EAPC World Congress we seek to assemble the most skilled and knowledgeable caregivers, clinicians, researchers and educators in the field of palliative care along with the vibrant opportunities to meet friends, colleagues and experts and gain new ideas and insights on how to improve care for patients and their families. Due to the geographic position of Copenhagen, bridging Scandinavia with central Europe, as well as the growing
interest in palliative care, this conference brings together more than 3,000 participants from a wealth of professional and cultural backgrounds.

We are delighted to be able to offer a program mixing world-leading plenary speakers, early career researchers,
clinical and academic experts, and hundreds of cutting edge presentations and posters. Over 1200 abstracts were submitted for the scientific programme of this conference, the highest ever for an EAPC congress. We were delighted with the quality of submissions, and send our congratulations to all those accepted. Our patients and families deserve the very best in evidence-based practice, underpinned by high quality research, knowledge generation, innovation, education, skilled care and appropriate health and social care policies. We hope that this congress will help to all those participating to further advance the field and their own practice or field of study.

Copenhagen – this premier capital of Northern Europe – offers an enchanting environment – with its mixture of old maritime charm and network of parks, public squares and green spaces. Since the completion of the Øresund Bridge, the metropolitan area of Copenhagen has become increasingly integrated with the Swedish province of  Scania and its largest city, Malmö, known as the Øresund Region. With bridges connecting the various districts, the cityscape is characterised by parks, promenades and waterfronts. The city is one of Europe’s oldest capitals with a royal touch – the monarchy in Denmark is the oldest in the world! Therefore we are very proud that HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark in her kindness is not only patron of the congress, but will also bestow the honor of a royal visit on us during the opening ceremony.

We are looking forward to meeting you during the congress!