Since 1999 surveillance of ART in Europe is carried out by the European IVF-monitoring (EIM) Consortium, founded in June 1999 by the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE). EIM is organized by the representatives of national registries of European countries offering ART. The high diversity of participating European countries pose a serious challenge for obtaining complete data and interpreting the results. Notwithstanding this challenge EIM has managed in 2014 to collect the data of 38 from 42 participating European countries (90.5%) and 1280 institutions (90.2% of all known in Europe). Annual meetings supported by ESHRE have created a spirit of mutual understanding and have contributed much to increase the level of participation. Every year, EIM published an annual report with cross-sectional data, typically made of more than 700'000 treatment cycles of ART. The first data set of 1997 was published in 2001 and was followed by 17 reports in the journal „Human Reproduction“.