Although the idea of a European doctorate has been discussed since the earliest years of the European Union it is only very recently that its time has finally come. This progress is the product of the efforts of a number of important players, including the European Commission, the European University Association, the main representative of institutions of higher education awarding doctoral degrees in Europe, and the Bologna Process. In synergy with the European Research Area's goals, the Bologna Process, in particular, has played a vital role in providing a new impulse to internationalisation of the doctorate in Europe. Despite the important steps already achieved towards the joint European doctorate, full recognition of its legal value is still a work in progress. Problems arise because of the national laws of some European Union members, but are also due to a still pervasive conservative view in European higher education that encourages academic "protectionism" instead of promoting cooperation. The two main reasons for resistance to innovative joint doctoral programmes remain, however, the misinterpretation of international mobility as the goal rather than one of the strategic tools of doctoral training and a widespread fear that harmonisation will homogenise the diversity of European doctoral curricula, reducing its current richness to uniformity. (Contains 7 footnotes.)