`titrebThe Bologna Process, the organisers and their accomplices`/titreb The result of the Bologna Process (stemming from the Magna Charta Universitatum drawn up by the gathering of rectors for the 900th anniversary of the University of Bologna), ‘The European Higher Education Area, (including Research and Lifelong Learning) is on the point of becoming concrete reality for the signatory countries of the European Cultural Convention. The authors retrace the major steps since the period just after the war, the growth taking place over the last few years and the increasing amount of apparently independent measures whose aggregation constitutes a solid base guaranteed by diverse international organizations. The authors investigate the apparent adhesion that this process inspires and clearly show its almost total lack of legitimacy since its aims, at no moment, have ever been determined by democratic procedures. By identifying the chief initiators they show that the process derives its force from the scope and strength of the network that supports it, a network that drives it by the emulation it inspires among its members. They finally underline its impact on the systems of education in other parts of the world (Latin America, Asia, North America, Africa and the Arab World) and its meeting with GATS.