The European Network of Health Promoting Schools (ENHPS) is a practical example of a health promotion activity that has successfully incorporated the energies of three major European agencies in the joint pursuit of their goals in school health promotion. As explained in the editorial, the network had its conceptual origins in the 1980's. However, since 1991 the initiative has been a tripartite activity, launched by the European Commission (EC), the Council of Europe (CE) and the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe (WHO/EURO) (Barnekow et al. 1999). Starting with only seven countries, the network has enlarged over the years and now has a membership of 43 countries. This article outlines the criteria and principles developed by the network to establish national HPS programmes in Europe. The coordinators of these programmes throughout Europe, taking the the diversity in culture and setting into consideration, have mapped the different models of HPS programmes in their countries and through the EVA project have developed a series of guidelines to monitor progress. All agree that a key element of success is to work together with the school community, parents and young people themselves as well as with health and education ministries, but their different experiences have also allowed them to identify a number of constraints and challenges.