Initiated by the EU Member States and supported by the European Commission the EU eHealth Governance Initiative was set up in 2009. This political initiative will be supported by two different instruments: the proposed Joint Action – eHealth Governance Initiative and the Thematic Network SEHGovIA. Defined areas of work of the eHealth Governance Initiative are legal issues, semantics and technical interoperability, identification, authentication and authorisation. The SEHGovIA network aims to establish – building on CALLIOPE experience – an efficient, appropriate governed and sustainable platform to enable all stakeholders to work in this political initiative.SEHGovIA will support the initiative at the policy, strategy and the operational level. SEHGovIA will provide to the Member States, the European Commission, health authorities, competence centres, user groups, industry and other relevant stakeholders a European eHealth interoperability Roadmap to facilitate involvement and usage of the work in the defined policy areas. Activities requiring broad convergence across Europe will be supported. SEHGovIA will be used as a communication and dissemination platform for the network members and beyond. SEHGovIA supports the setup of a European environment for the benefit of European patients (e.g. support and guidance for implementation, deployment and use of eHealth services throughout national healthcare systems, increasing patient safety and quality, better use of healthcare resources).Having a similar membership structure as it is in the Joint action, SEHGovIA intents to set up a governing and administration structure complimentary to the Joint Action using as much synergies as possible. The steering bodies will closely cooperate with the eHealth Governance Group.