The research character of this paper is mainly analytical and its purpose is to study the normative nature of the EU as an ideational power. I argue here that there is a failure within the existing literature with regard to the discussion about how third parties use European influences: there are no proper studies of receptiveness by others (non-European countries). Firstly this part deals with the debate analysing the EU as an ideational actor (Whitman et. al, 2011). This force is not characterised by any interplay where the influential process ‘wins’ through a better argument, this persuasive phenomenon operates in a climate of producing effects through a more influential ‘weltanschauung’. Secondly, this paper examines the growth of European ideas circulating throughout the field of Latin American Higher Education (HE), as part of the Bologna Process. This requires a rigorous analysis of European ideational factors present within Normative Power Europe (NPE).
