In the first of our special, extra ‘Europages’, funded by the Council of Europe (CoE), Mark McLaughlin briefly outlines the purpose and outcomes of a CoE project on ‘learning and teaching about the history of Europe in the twentieth century’. His short article reminds all history teachers of the need to learn from the wider history teaching context across Europe and of the sensitive, varied and immediate issues facing history teachers in different countries. His short introduction to the project provides the context for Ruth Tudor’s article on women’s history on pages 29 to 33.