Konferenciakalauz

Welcome Address

It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the 42nd Annual Meeting of ESPGHAN in Budapest. The Hungarian capital is honoured to host for the second time the most prestigious event of paediatric gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition in Europe.

The first ESPGHAN Meeting in Budapest was organized in a friendly athmosphere with 350 participants, in the summer of 1989. One of the main practical achievements of that meeting was the approval of modified criteria for the diagnosis of coeliac disease, which since that time have been referred to as Budapest criteria. I am sure that ESPGHAN 2009 in Budapest will cover the most exciting and up to date results of gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition. The postgraduate course, the symposia, the state of art lecture and the keynote lectures will appeal to the more than a thousand delegates. When the delegates arrived in Budapest in 1989, Hungarian people were going through very rapid historical changes. During that summer conferences took place among the representatives of the disintegrating communist government and the nascent parties of the opposition, which led to a system of free elections and a way toward multiparty democracy. Since that time the thousand year old Hungary became a free country, and now it is also a member state of the European Union.

Perhaps no other capital has played such a dominant role as Budapest in the life of a nation. About 2 million people or every fifth Hungarian lives here. The Buda hills on the right bank and the Pest plain on the left bank, diversify the city. The Danube, Europe’s highway, determines the life of Budapest dividing it into two and yet connecting both sides of the city’s districts. Our capital – growing into a true metropolis – renews and transforms itself from day to day, greeting those arriving with ever more to see. You will feel this atmosphere especially during the social events. I am sure that you will have great days in Budapest.

András Arató
Professor of Paediatrics
Congress President of ESPGHAN 2009.