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At the International Congress of Dialectology in Marburg (Germany) in 1965, the establishment of a scientific project aiming at the production of a European language atlas was proposed. It was envisaged that the modem correspondences of Indo-European phonemes should be represented in the atlas.

The proposal was adopted and in the years following its adoption, was worked out in more concrete and greater detail. It was envisaged that the ALE should comprise all languages and dialects spoken in Europe (as far as the Urals) and in consequence be purely descriptive (in other words should not deal with postulated earlier Indo-European forms). It was envisaged as comprising morphology, syntax and lexicon in addition to phonetics and phonology.

The Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen declared itself ready to oversee the project and to create an editorial centre in Nijmegen.

The project was adopted as a Category C project by the UAI on the initiative of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences in 1976.

By 1986, some difficulties had arisen in connection with the project. The Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences, under whose direction it had been, decided to withdraw its support and patronage from the project as from 1 January 1987.

The project was under the direction of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences until 1986. Directors : A. Weijnen 1976-1986, M. Alinei 1986.

UAI patronage was withdrawn in 1990.