Our Federation is consolidated through a process of maturation, which is substantially founded upon the quality and number of contributions of the member nations. Such a contribution is brought, keeping each specific cultural makeup, within a common language and in the interest of a shared cultural and operational purpose. The 2010 Bucharest Instructional Course clearly expresses this assumption: it updates, with its innovative and comprehensive approach, a subject which is of daily interest for most of us; it collects, involving a large number of authors, the contributions of most of the member nations, and opens itself to the meaningful participation of the newer European Hand Societies that by full right participate in the growth and consolidation of our professional quality. Moreover, it deals with an aspect of our discipline in which the host nation of our 15th Congress has expressed one of its most significant contributions. The full realization of our Federation s European size represents one of the most heartfelt FESSH current objectives, and happens through the harmonization of the formative processes, research, study, information and accreditation in which the Federation takes interest. [...] (Massimo Ceruso, FESSH, Secretary General)