The European Association for Endoscopic Surgery (EAES) was founded in 1990 and since then has become a growing and dynamic organization that continues to play a leading role in Endoscopic Surgery and Allied Interventional Techniques.

Aside from organizing annual Top Level European Congresses in different European countries, the EAES activities in education, training, research, development, and publication are effected through its various Committees: •Education & Training, including EAES sponsored and EAES endorsed courses as well as fellowships (n.b. the 2014 fellowship program is closed) •Research (cluster studies, multicenter studies and clinical trials, grant activities) •Technology (R&D in ergonomics, instrumentation, ancillary equipment, telerobotics and telecommunication) •Journal & Publication (publication of EAES consensus conferences, EAES manual) The Education & Training Committee runs EAES training Courses and also endorses training courses in member institutions and hospitals if these meet the criteria set up by the Committee.

The EAES has taken the lead in setting up Consensus Development Conferences which are now a regular feature of the Congresses of the Association.

Within its current membership, the EAES has access to all top level centers involved in research and development in the front-line areas, clinical and technological, of minimal access surgery, interventional tomographic microtherapy and telemanipulation. Its official journal Surgical Endoscopy, which is included in the membership subscription, now carries the highest impact factor of any surgical endoscopic journal (4.013 in 2011!!, up from 3.436 in 2010) and is ranked among the top 10 surgical journals overall irrespective of surgical specialty.