During the year 2007, when this thesis was completed, the European Union could look backat fifty years of collaboration, which began with the signing of the Treaty of Rome in 1957and which has developed from being mainly economic in character to incorporating a politicalas well as a social dimension at the European level. In 2007 the European Union alsocommemorated the twentieth anniversary of Erasmus, its higher education mobilityprogramme. It is this relatively new political dimension which I have been interested ininvestigating in this thesis. More precisely it is the political construction of a commonEuropean identity which is analysed using a critical discourse analysis approach.The majoraim of this thesis has been two-fold. The first aim has been to investigate how the European isconstructed in the discourse contained within the official European Union policy documents. Ihave been interested in analysing the various structures, in the form of ideas and norms whichare used in order to construct ‘the European’. The second aim has been to explore whether therole of higher education, as constructed in the official European Union discourse, is given asimilar identity-making role as education is argued to have in the nation-state according to thetheory on national identity. I argue that there are three version of European identityconstruction, i.e. cultural, civic, and neo-liberal, with their own relationship to highereducation, present in the empirical material analysed, consisting of official European Uniondocuments. Further, this thesis is also a study of the power of modern government. I arguethat there is an increase in normative soft power where ‘The Good European’ is notsomething ‘you’ are but something ‘you’ become by being a responsible active citizen.Through the use of critical discourse analysis I illuminate the power which resides in thelanguage in the discourse analysed. Thus, I have been interested in investigating how theofficial European Union discourse on European identity and higher education works to bothinclude and exclude individuals.

During the year 2007, the European Union could look back at fifty years of collaboration, which began with the signing of the Treaty of Rome in 1957 and which has developed from being mainly economic in character to incorporating a political as well as a social dimension at the European level. In 2007 the European Union also commemorated the twentieth anniversary of Erasmus, its higher education mobility programme. It is this relatively new political dimension which I have been interested in investigating in my research. More precisely it is the political construction of a common European identity which is analysed using a critical discourse analysis approach.The major aim of this research has been twofold. The first aim has been to investigate how the European is constructed in the discourse contained within the official European Union policy documents. I have been interested in analysing the various structures, in the form of ideas and norms which are used in order to cons truct ‘the European’. In this sense This research is a study of the power of modern government. I am influenced by Foucault and his concept of ’governmentality’ which can be linked to his other concepts of ’conduct of conduct’ and ’conduct of the self’. Is being a European something we are or something we become? I argue that there is an increase in normative soft power where ‘The Good European’ is not something ‘you’ are but something ‘you’ become by being a responsible active citizen who partake in higher education as a lifelong learning project. The second aim has been to explore whether the role of higher education, as constructed in the official European Union discourse, is given a similar identity-making role as education is argued to have in the nationstate according to the theory on national identity. I argue that there are three version of European identity construction, i.e. cultural, civic, and neo-liberal, with their own relationship to highe r education, present in the empirical material analysed, consisting of official European Union documents. Through the use of critical discourse analysis I illuminate the power which resides in the language in the discourse analysed. Thus, I have been interested in investigating how the official European Union discourse on European identity and higher education works to both include and exclude individuals. © 2016, Hellenic American University