AEGEE takes its name from one of the birthplaces of democracy, the Aegean Sea, and the first parliament at the dawn of the French Revolution, Les Etats Généraux. AEGEE is one of Europe's largest interdisciplinary student associations, which promotes a unified Europe, cross-border co-operation, communication, integration among students and strives to create an open and tolerant society of tomorrow. AEGEE is a voluntary, non-profit organisation that operates without being linked to any political party. It is represented in 260 university cities, in 40 countries all around Europe and has about 20.00 members.

AEGEE was founded in 1985 in Paris by a group of students from the "Grandes Ecoles" under the name EGEE - Etats Généraux des Etudiants de l'Europe. The name is related to the Aegean Sea (la Mer Egée) where democracy was created 2,000 years ago. Due to a name collision with another organisation, the name was changed to AEGEE in 1988. It is pronounced as if it were a French word: "aégée".

EGEE wanted to be a platform for young Europeans to discuss the future of Europe, to present their ideas to the officials of the institutions of the EC and national governments, and EGEE did not want to forget the voice of the students to try to influence European policy in favour of students. At that time, EGEE concentrated only on EC member states.

The idea of AEGEE succeeded to attract many students who began to establish EGEE locals in their own cities. Starting in Paris, the association was soon present in München, Milano, Leiden, London and Madrid. In 1988, AEGEE existed already in 40 university cities. During those days also the current structure, composed of AGORA, Presidents' Meeting (PM), Comité Directeur and Working Groups (WGs), was created.

What makes AEGEE truly European is that it does not use national level but solely relies on local groups (called antennae) in university cities all over Europe.(such as Aegee-Canakkale,Aegee-Athina)

AEGEE is established in around 250 cities with Universities in more than 40 countries all around Europe. An interesting point of that strcuture is posibility of Networking or cooperation between antennas.

As a tool for manage all the information flow exists a body who takes care of a certain number of antennae, making a division of 10 regions of within Europe

The structure, itself, does not allow a creation of physical and tries to erase the existence of mental borders between students coming from all parts of Europe. In the end, the activities of all antennae are co-ordinated by the European Board (Comité Directeur). In order to contribute and give support in the area of Higher Education, East-West relations, Culture, International Politics and Public Relations, the supporting working groups have been created.

Larger scale conferences are regularly organised and they cover various topics as: “Peace and Stability", "Borderless Europe", "Managing the new Eastern Border" and many other.

AEGEE enjoys support from the European Commission, has consultative status at the Council of Europe and UN. AEGEE is also a member of the European Youth Forum and has has co-operated with UNESCO on international projects.

Last but not least, AEGEE is made of incredibly motivated young people, who work for what they believe, getting in return personal satisfaction and hope that they have slightly influenced the course of things they have touched. In short, the European minded finds in AEGEE an almost perfect environment to learn and act as a European..