ABSTRACT
The concept of the European Research Area (ERA) was introduced formally by the European Commission in January 2000 (Commissioner Philippe Busquin), but it had already been referred to by previous Commissioners for Research, without major success. The idea of introducing European ‘Spaces’ or ‘Areas’ (which is originally a French concept better described by the word ‘espace’) has been familiar with major European Community policies, especially when the legal dispositions of the Treaty on the European Union (TUE) would not allow major regulatory approaches from the European legislator (i.e. the Council (of Ministers) and the European Parliament (EP) acting on the basis of Commission proposals); good similar examples in this case are Education policy, as well as the field of Justice and Home Affairs. Such an ‘area’ tends to define the contours of an ideal European space where a certain number of common principles would apply for the highest benefit of the relevant stakeholders and for which it would be rather difficult to adopt legislation. In such cases, voluntary agreements based on broad consensus among the relevant stakeholders tend to act as the driving force that eventually ‘ organise’ the ‘space’ or ‘area’. This is largely the case also for the ERA.
