The Bologna process, which coordinates EU-wide policies in higher education and which was developed outside of the Community institutions, shows that initial resistance to the EU may paradoxically be acting in favor of the construction of European policy. This paper explores the ambiguity inherent in this resistance, which has allowed the rapid launch of a powerful process in an area where the EU has no competence. Yet this process has become institutionalized as it mobilized resources from the Commission and because its goals were consistent with the economic matrix and the knowledge society promoted by the EU since the 1990s.