The European Confederation of Care Home Organisations (E.C.H.O.), whose Central Office is located in Brussels, pursues mainly the following objectives:
fair and reasonable terms among care providers in long term care sector
high quality standards throughout Europe and a simultaneous reduction in bureaucracy
recognition of elderly care sector as a productive economy factor.
ECHO members provide residential care for independent and dependent elderly in care and nursing homes, day centres, services flats, dementia and rehabilitation centres, domiciliary care and telemedicine.
ECHO is composed of the national federations of Bulgaria, Belgium, England, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Poland, , Netherlands and is still growing.
Its members take care now of more than 1,5 million elderly and employ 1,1 million staff people.