Following the document "Towards an Enhancement of Health Promotion and Preventive Functions in General / Family Practice in Europe", elaborated at the First Conference on Prevention and Health Promotion in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, in November 1995, the representatives of WONCA, WHO and others discussed the creation of a working group on Prevention and Health Promotion in April 1996 in Barcelona. They decided to name the group "European Review Group on Prevention and Health Promotion in Family Medicine and General Practice (EUROPREV)". During the European WONCA Congress in Stockholm, July 1996, the EUROPREV programme was officially accepted.

In 2001, EUROPREV was accepted by WONCA-Europe as one of its five network organisations and, as a result, EUROPREV changed its official name from ‘review group’ to ‘network’.