Preface.

In 1993, when the International League Against Epilepsy appointed a special Commission on European Affairs for the first time, it became clear that there was an urgent need for a detailed assessment of the situation in epilepsy across Europe. After the widening of the European agenda in the early 1990s, Europe was one continent that included some of the most developed nations of the world alongside others with developing country status. Some of the internationally leading epilepsy centres found themselves side-to-side with environments where epilepsy was still considered a psychiatric condition of doubtful prognosis, and where a regular supply of the necessary medicine was not available, or patients could not afford it.