Recent policy developments in the European Union have led to a new commitment among EU member states to European VET policies (European Commission, 2003). The Copenhagen Process and the Open Method of Co- ordination have several implications for the development of the members states’ VET systems (Grollmann & Ruth, 2005). While, on the one hand, a closer integration of work-based learning is identified by the officials of many member states as a predominant field of policy measures, at the same they have all subscribed to the Copenhagen Declaration, whose main current pillars are the establishment of a European Qualification Framework and the development of a European Credit Transfer System for VET. At least now, the architecture of these measures clearly privileges academic forms of learning as opposed to learning in the context of work processes. The contribution will describe and reflect on the paradoxical situation which evolves from this for the practice of VET. Different scenarios of possible intended and unintended effects will be presented on the basis of the Maastricht study and selected European research projects (e.g. Grollmann & Tutschner, 2005; Leney & The Lisbon-to-Copenhagen-to-Maastricht Consortium Partners, 2005).