Under the sponsorship of the European Physical Society, the Italian Physical Society, the German Physical Society and the Directorate of the Les Houches School have decided to start a European collaboration, in order to coordinate and to plan their respect ive courses in the framework of the regulations set up by the European Union. The main purpose is to present a programme of events in Europe which avoids duplications and can be most effective for providing research training and basic schooling in differen t fields of pure and applied physics. The three institutions have a long schooling tradition starting in 1951 with the Les Houches school, in 1953 with the Varenna school, and in 1976 with the Physikzentrum Bad Honnef. Ever since they have organized course s every year in the different fields of physics, which have documented their progress of the past decades. Several of the lecture notes published have become classic references in their fields. A typical course is hold by 10 lecturers and 10 seminar speake rs and is attended by an average of 60 students. Participants strongly benefit from their continous interaction stimulated by residing in an isolated and appealing environment. The official coordinator of the association is the President of the European Ph ysical Society (EPS), and the partners are represented by three delegates, one for each of the institutions involved. They currently are: Coordinator Martial Ducloy (President of the European Physical Society); Partners: Franco Bassani (President of the It alian Physical Society), Jean Dalibard (Director of the Les Houches School), and Dieter Meschede (Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Physikzentrum Bad Honnef). The courses proposed are of extended duration, between 2 and 4 weeks, following th e established tradition; they include a tutorial part (roughly 50% of the time) and a more advanced series of seminars and lectures which are supposed to lead participants#