The term Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) was launched in 1994following some 10 years of European dialogue (supported by the European Commissionand the Council of Europe), and national actions, on the benefits for additional languagelearning of variants of what had been widely termed "bilingual education" or"immersion". CLIL is a dual-focussed educational approach in which an additionallanguage is used for the learning and teaching of both content and language.Since 1994, local CLIL networks have been established in many LLP countries. Theseusually operate in isolation from each other although they involve some 4 000 teachers.The local CLIL networks face similar capacity-building development needs, and thesecould be more effectively if addressed at a European level.The CLIL Cascade Network (CCN) is to address the development needs which havenow surfaced regionally/nationally, and consolidate resources and expertise for thebenefit of a pan-European network of stakeholders (primary, secondary, vocational, andhigher education). It is to provide a network platform by which to transfer good practicefrom one environment to another, enable expert dialogue on a pan-European level,create the structures identified for informed development of teachers, schools, andeducational administration at local, regional/national, and European levels, and launch aself-sufficient post-funding business plan.Operating through the platform are 4 inter-linked Thematic Hubs which focus on thefollowing identified needs: creation of teacher training and professional developmentprogrammes; teacher/school capacity-building and networking; coordination of nationalresources by which to create a European evidence-base for CLIL; consolidatingevidence, quality assurance benchmarking, business strategy planning, disseminationand valorisation; and inter-linking with regional, minority and less widely used languagesthrough consolidation of previous project outcomes relevant to all languages. EachThematic Hub feeds into the central platform which is an information service, resourcedata-base, and membership service for individual members in the LLP countries.