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ABSTRACT The article explores the evolution, expansion and dynamics of EU education policy. Applying standard public policy analysis, it examines EU education policy with regard to context and process. The paper claims that EU education policy has, in recent years, been subject to a significant turn in functional terms. An assessment of EU documentation from 1970 to 2006 reveals a shift from politico-economic to economic-functional goals. A strong indicator of the shift is a change in the method of policy-making, which has drifted back from a semi-Community to an inter- or transgovernmental mode of policy-making. In short, there is a paradigmatic shift in policy aims, away from pro-integrationist towards pro-market orientation. The purpose of this macro-policy study is to reveal a new direction in EU education policy, which reflects the increased political and economic salience of education. Following transgovernmentalist logic, the article demonstrates that education policy in the EU frames a new form of policy regime which is characterized by flexibility but also by fragility.
Heiko Walkenhorst (Sun,) studied this question.