Disasters caused by natural hazards and their impact on society have been increasing steadily in the last few years. The most important increase has been in climate related events such as floods and storms. Vulnerability of all countries has been increasing including that ofEurope.The World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters - CRED (University of Louvain - School of Public Health) will present the global trends in 2008 natural disaster statisticswith a special focus on Europe along with the UN - International Strategy for Disaster Reduction - UN-ISDR. The briefing conference will include Prof. Debarati Guha-Sapir, CRED-UCL, Paola Albrito, UN-ISDR and Isabelle Combes, Head of Sector Strategy, policies and capacity building, European Commission DG ECHO