The EU counter-radicalisation strategy as “business as usual”? How European political routine resists radical religion

ABSTRACT

The emergence of an EU counter-radicalisation (CR) strategy has challenged the usual reluctance of European institutions to tackle value-loaded issues. This article examines whether this new policy alters EU policy-making and especially its approach to religion. It illuminates, first, the triggers of such a CR strategy (traumatic events, popular expectations and international influences). It then shows how the shift of CR from foreign to domestic EU affairs leads to the acknowledgement of religion as a multi-dimensional phenomenon and to the involvement of a greater number of political, bureaucratic and civil society actors. Still, usual patterns of EU public action apply to reduce the controversial potential of CR: circumscription to a legal and bureaucratic logic, institutional burden-sharing, delegation to member states and civil society, hollowing of the normative content of religion. In conclusion, CR has sparked a new EU policy field but has not radically shaken the routine of European politics.

KEYWORDS:

• Counter-radicalisation
• religion
• European Union
• secularism
• counter-terrorism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. See Foret (2015).

2. European Commission, Migration and Home Affairs, ‘Radicalisation’, No date.

3. See LIBE. 2017. ‘EU Member State’s Policies and Laws on Persons Suspected of Terrorism-Related Crimes’.

4. Europol, ‘2017 EU Terrorism Report’, 15 June 2017.

5. 62 people died and 819 were injured in jihadist attacks in 2017 (TE-SAT 2018, p. 23).

6. Standard Eurobarometer 2015, 84, p. 51.

7. Ibid, 2018a, 89, p. 25.

8. Special Eurobarometer 464b, Report on ‘Europeans’ Attitudes Towards Security, December 2017, p. 4 .

9. Proposal for a Council Framework Decision on combating terrorism, (521), 19 September 2001.

10. Council Framework Decision, 13 June 2002 on Combating Terrorism, para.2.

11. Council of the European Union, Revised EU Strategy for Combating Radicalisation and Recruitment to Terrorism, 19 May 2014.

12. Council of the EU, Informal meeting of the Heads of State or Government. Brussels, 12 February 2015.

13. See EPRS Briefing 2015, ‘Religious Fundamentalism and Radicalisation’.

14. Ibid, p. 7.

15. Council Conclusions on EU External Action on Counter-terrorism, 19 June 2017 (para. 3).

16. Council of the European Union, Conclusions of the first High Level Political Dialogue on Counter-Terrorism, 18 May 2006, p. 2.

17. See European Commission, ‘Dialogue with churches, religious associations or communities and philosophical and non-confessional organisations’: https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/just/item-detail.cfm?item_id=50189; and European Parliamentary Research Service, ‘Religion and the EU’s external policies’ (December 2017): https://www.europarl.europa.eu/pdf/divers/EPRS-IDA-614612-Religion-EU-external-policies-FINAL.PDF .

18. Interview with two appointed European officials working on counter-terrorism, Brussels, 2 March 2018.

19. Amongst others, the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation; the RAN Centre of Excellence; the European External Action Service; and the CTC.

20. European Commission, HLCEG-R Final Report, 2018b, 18 May 2018.

21. For an analysis of the EP’s treatment of religion and radicalisation see Foret and Markoviti (2019), ‘New Challenge, Old Solutions? Religion and Counter-Radicalisation in the European Parliament and the Radicalisation Awareness Network’. European Politics and Society, DOI: 10.1080/23745118.2019.1672265.

22. EP Resolution, February 2017a.

23. Draft Report, Findings and Recommendations of the Special Committee on Terrorism, 21 June 2018.

24. See also Roy (2010).

25. Revised EU Strategy for Countering Radicalisation and Recruitment (11), 14 November, para. 11.

26. Revised EU Strategy for Combating Radicalisation and Recruitment to Terrorism, 19 May 2014, para. 20.

27. ‘Preventing and Countering Youth Radicalisation in the EU’, LIBE Committee, 2014.

28. ‘Radicalisation and counter-radicalisation: A gender perspective’, EPRS Briefing, April 2016; ‘Radicalisation and violent extremism: How women become radicalized and how to empower them to prevent radicalisation’, FEMM Committee, December 2017b.

29. Commission Communication, ‘Supporting the Prevention of Radicalisation leading to Violent Extremism’, 14 June 2016.

30. EU CTC, Report ‘State of play on implementation of the statement of the Members of the European Council of 12 February 2015a on counter-terrorism’, p. 3.

31. Ibid, ‘Follow-up to the state of the Members of the European Council of 12 February on counter-terrorism: State of play on implementation of measures’, 5 October 2015b, 5c.

32. Interview with a European official, Brussels, 2 March 2018.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FRS-FNRS) under Grant PDR/OL T.0252.18.