This working paper presents the results of a preliminary empirical research by the project ValEUR. In the last decades, the enlargements of the European Union and the constitution-making process triggered debates on the common values susceptible to hold European countries and citizens together and to justify public action. This paper focuses on the extent, modalities and meanings of the use of values in EU institutional discourse in the period 2000-2015. The role of values as objects of policy action and/or resources for political legitimation is analysed in four policy sectors: institutional communication, identity (education, culture, citizenship, memory), religion and the rule of law. Through qualitative content analysis for each policy sector, we determine the conditions for the emergence and use of values in institutional discourses, the salience of values in these discourses, the possible differences/distribution of roles among the EU institutions and finally the meanings and functions attributed to values.