The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE, or FSF Europe) was founded in 2001 as an official European sister organization of the U.S.-based Free Software Foundation (FSF) to take care of all aspects of free software in Europe. FSF and FSFE are financially and legally separate entities.
FSFE believes that access to and control of software determines who may participate in a digital society. Therefore, the freedoms to use, copy, modify and redistribute software, as described in the Free Software definition, are necessary for equal participation in the information age.

What the Free Software Foundation Europe is doing
According to the FSFE, software patents for Europe are currently being pushed forward actively by a lobby gathering around the European patent office and the Business Software Alliance (BSA), which represents the interests of the largest U.S. companies. Software patents are considered by the FSFE to be a menace to society and economy and FSF Europe is actively involved in the resistance to such plans.
In 2001 the European Union, through the DG Competition of the European Commission (lead by Prof. Mario Monti), started investigating Microsoft's dominant position in the desktop operating systems. The Free Software Foundation Europe was invited by the EC to represent the stance of the Free Software movement. In 2004 FSFE participated in an appeal to defend again free competition and freedom of choice against abuses.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is one of 16 specialized agencies of the United Nations system of organisations. Its role is to administer 23 international treaties dealing with different aspects of limited monopolies on knowledge. As an observer to WIPO and together with a global coalition of other players with similar goals, FSFE is working towards reshaping it as a "World Intellectual Wealth Organisation."
Each month, FSFE publish a newsletter, in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish, of their activities that can be mentioned in public.
A complete overview of the activities can be found on FSFE Project Page.

Structure
The FSFE has a modular legal structure with a central "Hub" organisation and the possibility of local legal bodies, called "Chapters". The Hub is a charitable association ("e.V.") which is, by happenstance, registered in Germany.

Associate Organisations
These people are working for and with the FSF Europe on a regular basis, so they have been given permanent responsibilities and authorities for certain areas. Some of them are members of the association, some are not.

Alex Antener : Swiss team
Antonella Beccaria : Italian team - Italian press office coordination
Gareth Bowker : UK member of the association
Volker Dormeyer : German team - Tradeshows & Events
Alexander Finkenberger : German team
Karsten Gerloff : German team
Georg C. F. Greve : President (homepage, blog /RSS)
Joachim Jakobs : German team - Press Speaker (blog /RSS, pressreview blog /RSS)
Michael Kallas : German team, booth
Rainer Kersten : German office
Matthias Kirschner : German member of the association
Werner Koch : Head of Office & German Vice-Chancellor
Pablo Machón : Spanish team
Stefano Maffulli : Italian Chancellor (blog /RSS)
Reinhard Müller : Austrian member of the association
Jonas Öberg - Vice-President
Patrick Ohnewein : Italian team
Ciarán O'Riordan - Brussels representative (homepage, blog /RSS)
Giacomo Poderi : Italian team
Xavier Reina : Spanish team
Bernhard Reiter : German Chancellor
Cristian Rigamonti : Italian team - Webmaster and translator English-to-Italian
Henrik Sandklef : Swedish member of the association
Myriam Schweingruber : Switzerland
Fred Thiele : Germany, translations
Fabrizio Veutro : Italy
Ivan Jelic : Serbian team