In 1965, the creator and historical director of the Press and Information Service of the European Communities (EC), Jacques-René Rabier, described in a public lecture the legitimizing effect that academic knowledge can have on the European political project: ‘University lends the phenomenon [European integration] a sort of legitimacy of a great significance by making it the object of research, teaching and examination’. His service, which would become the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Information (DG X) in 1967, had early on identified the university milieu as one of its priority targets.² An objective was hence to promote research and teaching on...