In 1990, a number of prominent members of the Systems and Control community from countries of the European Union decided to set up an organization, named European Union Control Association (EUCA), whose main purposes are to promote initiatives aiming at enhancing scientific exchanges, disseminating information, coordinating research networks and technology transfer in the field of Systems and Control within the Union.
The first of these initiatives consisted in the launch of a series of periodic wide-spectrum conferences, called European Control Conferences (ECC), to be held every second year in countries of the Union. The first ECC was organized in Grenoble in 1991, under the chairmanship of Professor Ioan Landau. This first meeting was a major success with about 650 people attending. Subsequent ECC's were organized in Groningen in 1993, under the chairmanship of Professor Jan Willems, in Rome in 1995, under the chairmanship of Professor Alberto Isidori, in Brussels in 1997, under the chairmanship of Professors Michel Gevers and Georges Bastin, in Karlsruhe in 1999, under the chairmanship of Professor Paul M.	Frank and in Porto in 2001, under the chairmanship of J. L. Martins de Carvalho. More than 800 people participated in the Brussels meeting and almost 1100 in the ECC99 in Karlsruhe. Future ECC's will take place in Cambridge (2003) and in Sevilla (2005) as a joint conference with the IEEE CDC. A second major initiative of the EUCA was the launch of a scientific journal, called European Journal of Control (EJC), whose first issue appeared in September 1995, published on a quarterly basis by Springer Verlag. Its Editor-in-Chief is Professor Ioan Landau. From 2000 on the journal is published by Hermes.
EUCA consists of up to four members per each country of the European Union, depending on the level of activity in the field of Systems and Control in the particular country. At present, there are 47 members. Each member is appointed for a two-year term and can be re-appointed for at most two additional consecutive terms. The members of EUCA meet at least once a year to oversee the organization of future ECCs, the status of EJC, to discuss new initiatives of interest to the Systems and Control community in the countries of the European Union, and to deliberate about re-appointments and/or new appointments. In the time interval between annual meetings, matters of interest to EUCA are run by a Governing Board consisting of a President, two vice-Presidents, a Secretary and a Treasurer. EUCA is a non-profit organization.