Every IBE Full and Associate Member belongs to a Regional Committee, with the region determined closely in line with the WHO regional boundaries.

In order to meet the criteria for the creation of an IBE Regional Committee, membership in the region must reach a certain level, which is calculated based on the total number of countries within that WHO regional division. In order to achieve this criterion, the then IBE President Philip Lee, created the Eastern Mediterranean Task Force in 2003.

Chaired by Thanos Covanis, membership of this Task Force comprised all IBE Members in the region as well as representatives from Epilepsy Associations where IBE did not have a Member. The group first met at the time of the 25th International Epilepsy Congress in Lisbon in 2003. By the time of its second meeting in 2005, during the 26th International Epilepsy Congress in Paris, IBE had sufficient Full Members in the region to create the Eastern Mediterranean Regional Committee. Thanks are due to Thanos Covanis, Abdulaziz Al Semari, Najib Kissani, Hassan Hosny and all those from the region, who worked diligently and with enthusiasm to reach this objective.

In late 2006 the process to elect a Vice President from the region was completed, with Abdulaziz Al Semari duly elected. In February 2007, the Regional Committee was officially launched at the time of the 1st Eastern Mediterranean Regional Congress in Luxor, Egypt. Since then the election to fill the positions on the Regional Executive Committee Eastern Mediterranean have been ongoing. It is hoped to complete these elections in early 2008.