The topic of the European Universities is placed high on the political agenda of the EU. It has notably been one of the top priorities of the French Presidency of the EU and will continue to be addressed during the next presidencies of the Trio, which includes Sweden, starting on January 1st 2023.
On November 17 and 18, 2022, the French and German Embassies in Sweden organise a conference for the European Universities, established or in construction, which have a French, a German and a Swedish member.
This event will bring together the governance of such alliances in order to share feedbacks and good practices, but also to contribute in a trilateral format to the reflections in progress, with the aim of issuing a road map as outcome of the conference.
Emmanuel Macron launched the project of European Universities in his speech at the Sorbonne University on September 26, 2017.
Nous devons créer des Universités européennes, réseaux d’universités qui permettent d’étudier à l’étranger et de suivre des cours dans deux langues au moins.
We need to create European Universities, networks of universities that allow students to study abroad and take courses in at least two languages.
Emmanuel Macron, la Sorbonne, 2017
The European University Initiative is now part of the actions of Erasmus+, and three funding schemes have already been established for the creation and continued project of the alliances.
What are European Universities?
Several higher education institutions across the European Union form a European University Alliance, with the support of the EU through Erasmus+, to collaborate closely on issues such as higher education and curricula, staff and student mobility, research, student participation, and the relationship with local actors of society.
The goal is to reach joint ideas and solutions where the member institutions complete each other; there’s strength in numbers. International collaboration is crucial to meet the challenges of tomorrow head on.
These are the existing European University Alliances with a French, a German and a Swedish member:
| Alliance | France | Allemagne | Suède |
| CIVICA | Sciences Po | Hertie School | Stockholm School of Economics |
| CIVIS 2 | Aix Marseille Université | University of Tübingen | Stockholm University |
| ECIUn+ | INSA, the National Institutes of Sciences and Technology | Hamburg University of Technology | Linköping University |
| ENLIGHT | University of Bordeaux | University of Göttingen | Uppsala University |
| EUNICE | Hauts de France University | Brandenburg University of technology Cottbus Senftenberg | University of Karlstad |
| EU GREEN | University of Angers | University Otto von Guericke Magdeburg | University of Gävle |
| EUGLOH 2.0 | University Paris-Saclay | Ludwig-Maximilians- University München | Lund University |
| EUniWell | Nantes University | University of Cologne | Linnaeus University |
| EUTOPIA MORE | Cergy Paris University | Technical University of Dresden | University of Gothenburg |
| INGENIUM | University of Rouen Normandie | Karlsruhe University of applied sciences | University of Skövde |
| UNITE | Grenoble INP | Technical University of Darmstadt | KTH Royal Institute of Technology |
| UNIVERSEH | Federal University of Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées | Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf | Luleå University of Technology |
| NEOLAIA | University of Tours | Bielefeld University | Örebro University |