The number of neuroscientists in Europe is large enough to match that of the neuroscientific community in North America. However, the degree of cohesiveness in the former is hampered by, among other things, the lack of a common language, the existence of geopolitical boundaries, and the dearth of pan-European funding initiatives. In this article, Wolf Singer, President of the European Neuroscience Association (ENA), discusses these issues and describes how the ENA is changing its organization, in particular the way in which its annual meeting is to be organized, in an effort to counteract the current deficiencies in European neuroscience.