The development of the European Masters in Language and Speech has been promoted by ELSNET, the European Network of Excellence in Language and Speech. After a call in spring 1996, ELSNET organised a meeting for interested parties in Utrecht, The Netherlands. At the meeting an application was prepared which was submitted under the European Union Socrates Programme.

The application was approved and the project started in September 1997 as Socrates project CDA 28972-IC-1-96-NL-ERASMUS-EPS-1. During the project some partners left while others joined, resulting in a current group of partners. In the first year of the project, the model was developed and the contents of the EuroMasters was defined. ISCA and EACL endorsed the adopted model, and their Presidents will sign the EMasters certificate.

In 1999-2000 the first students studied within the EMasters framework. In July 2000 the first EMasters school was held in Chios, Greece, in July 2001 the second was held in Brno, Czech Republic and the third in Leuven, Belgium.

An application has been submitted to Socrates to extend the project with one year for dissemination.