The EPF is an umbrella organization of national polymer societies. Each member state is represented by a national representative. National representatives meet at General Assembly meetings.
It all started in the late 70s with the European Science Foundation (ESF), in Strasbourg. The ESF, in its role to help develop specifically identified areas of scientific research in Europe, formed a commission devoted to Polymers, that was chaired by Piero Pino (at that time, professor at the ETH). The aim of this commission was to make an inventory of the laboratories working on polymers in Europe, and to organise meetings for the purpose of allowing European polymer scientists to meet in Europe rather than on a different continent. This commission was financed by the ESF for 3 years, after which another committee, chaired by Henri Benoit (from Strasbourg) was set up on Polymers at Interfaces. Several meetings were organised on this topic in different European countries for another 3 years, after which the ESF considered that it had given enough support to this theme, and that, should the subject be of importance, it ought to be organised on its own.
In 1986, a meeting was organised near Strasbourg, with the financial support of the ESF, that was attended by representatives of 16 European countries. Everybody agreed that polymers, research on polymers, both in industry and in academia were of great significance in Europe, where original research was actively pursued, and therefore deserved an organisation of some kind devoted to the topic: the Statutes of the European Polymer Federation were drafted and signed by all the participants. The chartered goal of the EPF was to co-ordinate and stimulate the activities of European countries in the areas of sciences, technology and applications of synthetic and natural macromolecules, and more specifically to encourage cooperation and advancement of education, research and development of polymer science and technology. It was hoped that the activities of the EPF would be recognised and that its recommendations would be paid heed to in Brussels, in the definition of the areas to be supported by the European Commission.