In 1981 a final proposal on an European study of the Earth's crust and upper mantle in different European countries was submitted to the ESRC which accepted and decided to set up an ad hoc Working Group to pursue the project.
On the recommendation of the ESRC, this programme was adopted, and so the ESF Assembly approved the European Geotraverse Project (EGT) as Additional Activity in November 1982.
The EGT is an international, interdisciplinary project focused on a north-south oriented lithospheric profile lying between northernmost Scandinavia and North Africa.