Europæisk governance og uddannelse

Institutional changes within the European Union (EU), an institution which pools sovereignty, and in its operational workings, have increased the Union’s political influence on national matters, yet have also redefined the contours of member states’ capacity to influence Europe-wide policies. Broadly addressed under the label of Europeanisation the ways these changes affect policy work in education is hard to capture. Overcoming this conundrum, is argued in this chapter, requires directing simultaneous attention under multi-scalar governance to: 1) reciprocal power relations amongst the EU and its member states; and 2) deliberate forms of collaborations between the EU, its member states and other state-lead organizations, e.g., the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), both of which glues and blends national and supranational agency together. Accordingly, this chapter first introduces the EU as a complex political system in which national governments exert powerful influence; then debates shifts in legitimate authority and the changing nature of the state that, taken together, either restrict or amplify national influence on EU shared institutions. Finally, the chapter pays close attention to European governance and its working at multiple scales, and demonstrates, through an exemplification, how European governance may facilitate (as much as profit from) deliberate collaborations in education between the EU, its members states and the OECD.