Orfeus (Observatories and Research Facilities for European Seismology), is the European, non-profit organization for coordinating seismology in the European-Mediterranean area and to provide open access to high quality data by the geo-scientific research communities. Orfeus is the European framework to develop common data gathering and dissemination policies, novel data discovery techniques and services and is the vehicle for fund raising for European seismology. The success of Orfeus as pan-European organization has materialized over the last decades in a solid platform in which financial support, management and technical ecpertise are coordinated and distributed over a number of European, seismological institutes and organizations.