The basis for cooperation between the partners of the EEE Network was established in 1990, when the European Commission programme COMETT II commenced. UETP-EEE (University-Enterprise Training Partnership in Environmental Engineering Education) was approved in 1990 as a COMETT project funded by the European Commission.
Since 1990, UETP-EEE has been coordinating an extensive number of training programmes and projects, as well as student exchange programmes. When the COMETT programme was terminated at the end of 1994, the funding of networks became much more difficult. It led to a decreasing number of partners, and those partners who were still active in the EU projects did not have a structured basis for cooperation.
Since 1990, the recognition of the importance of the environmental awareness and competence has been increasing. Environmental problems and pollution do not stop at state borders, and so the solutions and the research in this field need to be multinational. The need for networking and active international cooperation in this most important field is therefore widely recognised.
An open network of partners without a legal recognition is no longer adequate. Therefore the active members of the original network, all of them highly regarded practitioners in this field, decided to establish and register an international association in Brussels under the Belgian law, based on the existing cooperation between the partners. The name was only slightly changed: “EEE” was retained to emphasise the continuation of the activities of the partners, but the “UETP” was left out, because it was a complicated title and although it was well known from the COMETT programme, it is no longer valid.
The members of the EEE Network wish that the formalities of the registration will be completed soon, and that the new association EEE Network can start its activities efficiently.
