The European Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA) was created in 1999.
Until 2008 EFDA was responsible for the exploitation of the Joint European Torus, the coordination and support of fusion-related research & development activities carried out by the Associations and by European Industry and coordination of the European contribution to large scale international collaborations, such as the ITER-project.
2008 has brought a significant change to the structure of the European Fusion Programme. The change was triggered by the signature of the ITER agreement at the end of 2006. The ITER parties had agreed to provide contributions to ITER through legal entities referred to as "Domestic Agencies". Europe has fulfilled its obligation by launching the European Domestic Agency called "[http://fusionforenergy.europa.eu/ Fusion for Energy]", also called F4E, in March 2007.
With the appearance of F4E EFDA´s role has changed and it has been reorganised. A revised European Fusion Development Agreement entered into force on 1 January 2008 focuses on research coordination with two main objectives: to prepare for the operation and exploitation of ITER and to further develop and consolidate the knowledge base needed for overall fusion development and in particular for DEMO, the first electricity producing experimental fusion power plant being built after ITER.