European Federation of Geologists (EFG) represents more than 45,000 professional geologists from 27 European countries and like other professions also geologists and geoscientists have been strongly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the main purposes of EFG is offering support to its national associations being institutional constituents and their individual members, and based on this mission an assessment on the first impact of the pandemic was made in two steps. First, an on-line survey was performed to gather the framing issues for the virtual meeting at which representatives of national associations have elaborated on the responses and through the discussion formulated issues in more detail, suggested solutions and agreed on future measures to minimize the negative effects of the pandemic.