  The European Virtual Observatory Euro-VO has been coordinating European VO
activities through a series of projects co-funded by the European Commission
over the last 15 years. The bulk of VO work in Europe is ensured by the
national VO initiatives and those of intergovernmental agencies. VO activities
at the European level coordinate the work in support of the three "pillars" of
the Virtual Observatory: support to the scientific community, take-up by the
data providers, and technological activities. Several Euro-VO projects have
also provided direct support to selected developments and prototyping. This
paper explains the methodology used by Euro-VO over the years. It summarizes
the activities which were performed and their evolutions at different stages of
the development of the VO, explains the Euro-VO role with respect to the
international and national levels of VO activities, details the lessons learnt
for best practices for the coordination of the VO building blocks, and the
liaison with other European initiatives, documenting the added-value of
European coordination. Finally, the current status and next steps of Euro-VO
are briefly addressed.
