ESO is currently in an advanced phase of construction of four 8.2m
diameter telescopes to be placed on top of Cerro Paranal in northern
Chile at an altitude of 2500m. The first telescope is expected to
become operational by mid 1998 with the rest coming on line in yearly
intervals. This means that, already by the beginning of the next
century, Europe will have available an array of astronomical
instruments of unprecedented power and versatility. Among the most
important scientific objectives of the VLT observatory will be an
in-depth study of extrasolar planets and their environments. In this
presentation, I will describe the planned efforts in this exciting
new field with special emphasis on high precision narrow-angle
astrometry that can be exploited with an interferometric array of
small telescopes clustered around the large ones, high spectral
resolution in the optical and IR to probe a very large number of
stars for tell-tale velocity variations and precision photometry to
catch planetary microlensing events. The exciting possibility to
directly image the brightest planets is also being actively pursued
at ESO. The aim of the talk is to show what pivotal roles the VLT
and VLTI should be able to play in this important area of research.