5: The EU's Engagement in Lifelong Learning Policy Discourse: An Institutional Learning Perspective

This chapter provides detailed historical accounts of how the EU was revived as a key promoter of European integration in education and training, focusing on lifelong learning, based on its expanded legitimate power since the 1992 Maastricht Treaty. In detailing the historical development of lifelong learning policy discourses in the EU, the chapter focuses on explaining how the EU has established itself as the key institutional agent in the lifelong learning policy arena. Although previous research has well documented “what” has emerged in EU lifelong learning policies, the less-explored question is “why and how” the EU arrived at a flexible notion of lifelong learning adaptable to diverse requirements. To explain the EU's all-embracing policy of lifelong learning, this chapter employs the concept of institutional learning. It is worth noting that even during the post-Maastricht period, the European Commission's policymaking legitimacy was not always acknowledged by the member states or other EU institutions. This chapter demonstrates how the Commission secured its legitimacy regarding lifelong learning policy for its member states through the mechanism of institutional learning.