Representing Religion in the European Union. A Typology of Actors

Abstract

For the first time in the history of the acquis communautaire, the Lisbon Treaty institutionalises an 'open, transparent and regular dialogue' between European institutions and 'churches, religions and communities of conviction'. Drawing on a comparative analysis of 120 religious and convictional actors which have been in contact with European institutions from 1957 until today, this article proposes four types of relations between religious/convictional representations and European institutions, namely, private -public, experimental, proactive and institutionalised. It argues that the Lisbon institutionalisation of religious dialogue enhances the public visibility of the European Commission and, most significantly, of the construction of the European political system.

The European Union and the Catholic Church

“…Leustean 2007Leustean , 2011Leustean , 2013Massignon 2007;Leustean and Madeley 2009;McCrea 2009b;Silvestri 2009;de Vlieger 2011de Vlieger and Tananescu 2012). Some pundits provide a chronological account based partly on their own experience as active participants (Jansen 2000;Turner 2012a) or even directly from the perspective of the churches themselves (e.g.…”

“…59 As we indicated above, at the beginning of the integration process, the Catholic Church did not demonstrate systematic interest in the institutional dialogue with the nascent European Communities. Its activities were limited to the initiatives of individual dioceses and even the modest office of the Catholic Secretariat for European Issues which monitored the Council of Europe in the Diocese of Strasbourg and which functioned in 1950-1952 was closed due to the lack of international support and financial means as well as the low level of interest from the Holy See (Leustean 2011(Leustean , 2013. In 1956, the Jesuit European Office was already established in Strasbourg to observe developments in the Council of Europe, followed by an office located in Brussels in 1963 known as the Catholic European Study Information Centre (OCIPE).…”

“…abundant materials of COMECE). Others describe the development of external institutional contacts, but not less thoroughly (de Vlieger 2011Leustean 2011). Legal studies dedicated to European law and religion represent another important body of literature since it is the national and EU-based legal frameworks on which both formal and informal activities of religious organizations within the EU depend.…”

“…Note: *Based on the comparison of the periodization by Doe (2011: 237) and by Leustean (2011. Note: * The data on frequency refer to the words starting with "religio-," "church-," and "catholic-," respectively (such as religious, religion, churches).…”

“…Some works focus on the developments in ecumenical support for the integration project (Arnold 2005;Leustean 2011) or the analogical papal pronouncement, referring both to the fundamental concepts of Christian theology and to the idea of the EU as the embodiment of Christian civilization (Chelini-Pont 2009;O'Mahony 2009;Turner 2012b). Yet other authors point to the history of ambivalent attitudes of the Catholic Church to the nation-state (Philpott 2004;Hehir 2006;Llywelyn 2010) which gives further credence to the idea that religious tendencies to transnationalize European politics were present on the Continent even in the pre-integration era (Conway 1997;Warner 2000;Boyer 2004;Kaiser and Wohnout 2004;Kaiser 2007).…”