cooperation European University Alliance 4EU+ to Acquire New Legal Form

The European University Alliance 4EU+ has decided to give itself its own legal form. The rectors of the participating universities of Prague, Heidelberg, Sorbonne/Paris, Warsaw, Copenhagen and Milan passed this resolution in early April 2021. Accordingly, the six research-intensive universities that together form the 4EU+ European University Alliance will now continue and greatly deepen their work as a registered association. The new legal framework will, inter alia, contribute to making communication within the alliance even more efficient by clustering responsibilities and resources, streamlining procedures and reducing bureaucratic obstacles. Registered as “4EU+ European University Alliance e.V.”, the alliance’s headquarters and general secretariat will be located in Heidelberg.

With its registration as an association, 4EU+ will further professionalise its structures. Of central importance is the general secretariat, which, working from Heidelberg, will make a major contribution to further improving the exchange within the alliance, guiding the further strategic development of 4EU+, giving visibility to the alliance’s activities in research and teaching, and carrying its common vision of a ‘European University’ into society.

Prof. Dr Bernhard Eitel, Rector of Heidelberg University: “With the establishment of an independent legal form the members of 4EU+ are underlining their firm intention to further advance their shared strategic goals in the context of the institutional alliance. They are placing their cooperation in research, university education and innovation on a new basis for the benefit of all those concerned, and creating a common future as part of a truly European community.”

The 4EU+ alliance comprises the universities of Prague, Heidelberg, Sorbonne/Paris, Warsaw, Copenhagen and Milan. Since June 2019 the alliance of six partner universities has been one of the 17 university alliances funded in the context of the Erasmus+ pilot call for European Universities. The alliances receive financial support in order to take initial steps towards long-term, transnational cooperation. By supporting strategic university partnerships and building up an integrated university system, the European Commission pursues the goal of clustering research, teaching and innovation in Europe into new structures, thereby modernising and consolidating the European education area.