At the “2nd Baltic & North Sea Conference on Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine” in Vilnius on September 28th, the ESPA President gave a lecture about the “Significance of the spas and health resorts in Europe and the policy of the ESPA”. The stress was put on the development and the differences of European spa resorts over the last few decades, the maximum use of local natural resources as the USP of a modern health resort and care centre, the high quality health tourism and its economic significance. ESPA’s support in the field of exchanging experience amongst European members associations, developing programmes, conceiving prevention and rehabilitation strategies, promoting balneological research and creating uniform standards of quality in all European health resorts have been exposed.