European Pressphoto Agency

EPA Images was founded in 1985 by seven European news agencies. The agencies, AFP of France, ANP of the Netherlands, ANOP (now Lusa) of Portugal, ANSA of Italy, Belga of Belgium, DPA of Germany and EFE of Spain were motivated by what they saw as a lack of alternatives to the Anglo-Saxon picture services offered at the time.

Originally conceived as a vehicle to exchange pictures of the member agencies' domestic service; it also included the world service of AFP and other European services and suppliers. It expanded to a more independent entity as Eastern Europe opened up. The opening of these new markets, along with the war in the former Yugoslavia, led EPA to employ its own photographers in those regions. Despite these developments, EPA remained under the auspices of their member/owners whom it exclusively served.

EPA shareholders and EPA going global

By 1995 EPA Images had ten members with the additions of Keystone of Switzerland later in 1985, APA of Austria in 1986, and Lehtikuva of Finland in 1987. Pressensbild of Sweden joined in 1997 followed by Scanfoto (later Scanpix Norway) of Norway and Nordfoto (later Scanpix Denmark) of Denmark in 1999. PAP of Poland joined EPA in 2001.

In early 2003, after restructuring and the departure of AFP, EPA expanded into the global market. Later in 2003 Lehtikuva, Scanpix Denmark/Norway and Pressensbild (later Scanpix Sweden) decided not to continue as a shareholder of EPA. However, Scanpix Norway, Sweden and Denmark continued cooperation with EPA under the name of Scanpix Scandinavia.

ANA of Greece (now ANA-MPA) joined EPA as a shareholder in 2004 followed by MTI of Hungary in 2005.

Today EPA has eight shareholders, largely major domestic European news agencies:

Athens News Agency-Macedonian Press Agency (ANA-MPA) in Greece

Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau (ANP) in the Netherlands

The international picture service of EPA is used by diverse media as well as EPA's partners and shareholders worldwide. At present EPA's editorial service offers approximately 2,200 new images each day.