The process towards an European Union seems not to have taken into account the need for an European dimension in education until recently. However, this dimension has been extremely reinforced by the means of different European programmes which have been launched in the past few years. According to this general idea, this article describes and analyses the main phases in the generation of an European Commission's education policy, as follows: 1957-1970, with a main concern on economic matters; 1971-1986, first steps to a common education policy; 1986-1992, the educational programmes; and 1992-1995, review and harmonisation of the educational programmes.