@simon @nlnet That sounds very much like the first Framework Programme, at least timewise.
I was rapporteur for one of the streams (basic software, parallel computing) at an early workshop held at Woluve-Saint-Lambert Town Hall, chosen, I think, for reliability. There were massive turf wars both in DG-XIII and in the industry panels (still the twelve at the time). At some point I had to say that I would be unable to put my name to the report after it had been edited within DG-XIII.
@SK53 Piets mini auto-biography is probably the least dry treatment on the topic https://godfatherof.nl/ specifically https://godfatherof.nl/WPA.html on the COSINE/Eureka angle.
http://ictconsulting.ch/reports/European-Research-Internet-History.pdf goes in to a lot more details though.