It is a great honour to lead the ESVO over the next two years. I come to the office at a challenging time for the organisation. We are lucky to have a board that represents the European ophthalmology family from the Norht to the South and from the East to the West. We also value our membership from outside the borders of Europe. At this time, we are all disappointed that the annual joint ophthalmology congress with the ECVO has been suspended. The ESVO board are committed to seeing this congress re-established as a joint congress in the near future. You the members mandated us, by an overwhelming majority at the ABM in Copenhagen to achieve this aim. A letter send to all members prior to the recent Copenhagen congress set out the ESVO point of view. We move forward positively. The ESVO is about the development of ophthalmology in Europe and this board hopes to present many new ideas in the coming months. Please watch the ESVO website. As new information appears on it, you will receive an e-mail, directing you to take a look. The members section is password protected. If you forget your password, please note that there is a "forgot password" box on the home page, you will immediately be given a new password. There is also a google group through the website, do use it to ask colleagues about difficult cases or to make comment on the working and direction of the ESVO. Most importanly, the next ESVO annual congress is in Dublin. It has been marketed as the EVO (European Veterinary Ophthalmology) Congress. This was to give maximum chance for the congress to be a joint one, hoping that the ECVO have decided not to join us this year. But Ireland welcomes you and promises you a high calibre meeting scientifically, in a lovely coastal village setting, on the outskirts of Dublin, with easy access to the city centre (25 minutes by tran from the Congress hotel). Also being Ireland, we hope that you will enjoy the social aspect of the congress, which includes a visit to a whiskey museum and a night of music and fun(craic, as we say in Ireland) with Guinness and whiskey flowing.