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Based on comparative research, the author analyzes the relationship between nation-states and the European Commission, examining educational policy as a factor of Europeanization. Creating a European educational area, an example of what is known as “soft governance,” actors are using new political tools and seeing Europe as a new concept of institutions, networks, management of the flow of knowledge, and comparative data. The article studies the replacement of bureaucratic systems of control and command with technology-based networks in which cooperation and coordination are constantly being negotiated and reframed, and in which political leaders must be careful to organize exchange and consistency in reconfigured power relationships. The comparison between England and Scotland highlights the fact that data cannot become automatically transformed initiatives; a constant effort is required to find and preserve consensus. In England, technocrats are supposed to make this conversion effective within a centralized system. In Scotland, a strategy of self-evaluation is adapted to the debate on independence progress for all. In both cases, an analysis of the political tools, as well as the role of data and of the local school inspectorates, enable us to understand the concept of governance for nation-states in the framework of international and European developments.