The long-term objective of the European fusion programme is the harnessing of the power of fusion to help meet mankind's future energy needs.

This paper describes the current research programme, the unique organisational character of the fusion programme, and European and world-wide co-operation. The future evolution of the programme as part of the European Research Area and the developments currently taking place in preparation for the possible construction of ITER, the next major step towards the realisation of fusion power, are discussed.