ECREA was established in 2005 as a merger of the two main European associations of communication researchers, the European Communication Association (ECA) and the European Consortium for Communications Research (ECCR).
The announcement of the merger was made on 25 November 2005 during the opening of the First European Communication Conference hosted by the University of Amsterdam, ECCR and ECA in front of 550 participants. Their presence and active participation showed a pressing demand for such an initiative in the communication scholars’ community.