ABSTRACT
The uses and effects of European values are framed by the characteristics of the European Union (EU) governance, especially by the absence of a strong symbolic centre able to enforce political and policy narratives, but do not differ substantially from value politics at the national or global levels. Looking at the broader picture of European governance including institutional and non-institutional actors, several factors overlap to characterize those more prone to invoke European values. Apparent continuity of European values in legal and political discourses can thus hide mutations in meaning and relevance. This leads to the question of the conservative or transformative effects of values, a factor strongly correlated to the actors who put them on the agenda, either institutional ones or outsiders. Challenges to established European values come most frequently from relative outsiders. While varying across space, society and time in their interpretations, European values are also granted continuity and stability.
