This issue and the winter 2007-2008 issue (vol. 39, no. 4) of "European Education" address the implications of competition for the future of European higher education. Studies bear on the initiatives taken over the past few years in Europe to enhance the harmonization of European higher education systems and particularly the Bologna process, the Lisbon strategy, and the Tuning and Erasmus Mundus programs. This article addresses and structures some elements that lay the foundations common to the contributions of these two issues.