Opening Address by P. Faross [International Conference on Radiation Protection In Medicine, Bonn (Germany), 3-7 December 2012]

In the European Union, we are fortunate to have had a generation of scientists, medical professionals and policy makers who realized the need for radiation protection of patients early. The first European legislation in this area was passed in the 1980s and further elaborated in the 1990s. The European Framework Programme for Research and Innovation supported many projects on medical use of radiation, covering areas such as the transition to digital imaging and the implementation of breast cancer screening. The enlargement of the European Union in 2004 and 2007 helped to spread these achievements to an even larger population, now counting more than 500 million people in 27 countries. Europe, in the past years, experienced several important developments in the wider area of nuclear energy and radiation protection. In 2009, the European Union adopted, for the first time, a legally binding instrument for nuclear safety and, in 2011, for radioactive waste management. Some European initiatives developed as a consequence of particular events: most importantly, the 'stress tests' of the European reactors following the Fukushima accident have been finalized; more closely related to the present meeting is the recently established European Observatory on the supply of medical radioisotopes aimed at improving the reliability of technetium supply, affected by severe global shortages in the past years