Injury in Europe is the third leading cause of mortality and one of the most important causes of morbidity. Regarding the number of potential life years lost, the human suffering and the economic consequences caused it must be considered as a major public health problem with increasing importance.

A network meeting was organized 1997 by Karolinska Institutet and the Falköping Municipality in Sweden to promote the establishment of the European Safe Community Network/ESCON. National and local representatives of 21 countries have accepted the working documents of the Network, elected a Steering Committee and a Secretariat.

The vision of the Network is a Safe Europe, where responsible humans care for themselves, for others and for their environment while living in Safe Communities.

The Network was established to promote the cause of injury prevention by: stimulating co-operation among potential partners at the community, regional, national and European level exchange experience and knowledge in safety promotion and injury prevention provide access for the European Community to the Network's pool of expertise facilitate access to resources including funding opportunities.

The European Safe Community Network is an inclusive organization. Its basic aims are coalition building and co-operation with all possible individuals, communities, governmental and non-governmental organizations in Europe who share our vision to fight against injuries. It is not the framework of the organization but the action itself that counts. The Network wishes to achieve its aims by the following strategies:

• Strengthening the organization by building alliances with all organizations interested
• Promoting injury prevention on the agenda of other groups and networks
• Enhancing the contacts of Network participants by organizing meetings, conferences,
• Exchange programs, site visits, seminars on injury prevention.
• Developing the electronic links via the Internet to facilitate the transfer and dissemination of the information
• Developing resources such as guidelines and documents, disseminate the results of existing and future Centres of Excellence

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