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.

Acknowledgments

Data in this article has been corroborated from interviews and material from the following bodies and archives: the Bureau of European Policy Advisers of the European Commission, Brussels; the Church and Society Commission of the Conference of European Churches, Brussels; the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community, Brussels; the Jesuit European Office, OCIPE, Brussels; the Foyer Catholique Européen, Brussels; the Quaker Council for European Affairs, Brussels; Centre d'Action Laïque, Brussels; the Historical Archives Service of the European Commission, Brussels; Lambeth Palace Archives, London; and the Archive of the World Council of Churches, Geneva. I am grateful to the staff in these organisations for permission to read their documents. This paper does not reflect the official position of any of the above organisations. This project has been supported by a Small Research Grant on ‘The Politics of Religious Lobbies in the European Union’ by the Economic and Social Research Council (RES-000-22-3821). The findings of this grant have been presented at the London School of Economics Forum on Religion, Heythrop College London and the Aston Centre for Europe and I am very grateful for the feedback from audience members. I would particularly like to thank Professor Emeritus Michael Sutton for his extremely valuable comments on an earlier draft of this paper.

Notes

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²David Martin, A General Theory of Secularisation (Oxford: Blackwell, 1978); Peter Berger (ed.), The Desecularization of the World: Resurgent Religion and World Politics (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1999); Jose Casanova, Public Religions in the Modern World (Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press, 1994); Peter Berger; Grace Davie and Effie Fokas, Religious America, Secular Europe? A Theme and Variations (London: Ashgate, 2008); Timothy A. Byrnes and Peter J. Katzenstein (eds), Religion in an Expanding Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006); Grace Davie, Religion in Modern Europe: a Memory Mutates (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000); Grace Davie, Europe, The Exceptional Case. Parameters of Faith in the Modern World (Darton: Longman and Todd, 2002); Pippa Noris and Ronald Inglehart, Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).

³Max Kohnstamm's interview with the author, 20 June 2010.

⁴The text of Protocol 33 is available at Official Journal, C 340 of 10 November 1997. References to religion were issued mainly in the context of the ‘freedom of religion’ by the Council of Europe, such as the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (4 November 1950), Protocol to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (20 March 1952), European Social Charter (18 September 1961), Community Charter of the Fundamental Social Rights of Workers (9 December 1989) and Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (7 December 2000).

⁵Declaration 11 states that, ‘The European Union respects and does not prejudice the status under national law of churches and religious associations or communities in the Member States. The European Union equally respects the status of philosophical and non-confessional organisations’. Declaration 11 on the Status of Churches and Non-Confessional Organisations, Official Journal, C 340, of 10 November 1997.

⁶Article 17 states that: ‘The Union respects and does not prejudice the status under national law of churches and religious associations or communities in the Member States. The Union equally respects the status under national law of philosophical and non-confessional organisations. Recognising their identity and their specific contribution, the Union shall maintain an open, transparent and regular dialogue with these churches and organisations’.

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⁹Martin Greschat and Wilfried Loth (eds), Die Christen und die Enstehung der Europäischen Gemeinschaft (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1994); Philip Coupland, Britannia, Europa and Christendom: British Christians and European Integration (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006); Jurjen Zeilstra, European Unity in Ecumenical Thinking 1937–1948 (Zoetermeer: Boekencentrum, 1995); Lucian N. Leustean, ‘The Ecumenical Movement and the Schuman Plan, 1950–54′, Journal of Church and State, 2011, 53 (3), pp. 442–471.

¹⁰The Ecumenical Commission on European Cooperation (ECEC) was renamed as the Committee on the Christian Responsibility for European Cooperation (CCREC) in 1953 and the Christian Study Group for European Unity (CSGEU) in 1966. From 1966 the Group had a Catholic observer from OCIPE.

¹¹This aspect was particularly endorsed at a sensitive time in the history of European integration, when on 1 July 1968 President Rey announced the completion of the Customs Union. In an unprecedented public declaration the European Commission made references to the role of churches stating that: ‘1 July 1968 will certainly go down as a milestone in the history of Europe. On that day the first and the major stage on the road to the economic unification of the European continent will be complete. The Customs Union which is one of the first aims of the Treaty of Rome will have been brought into being […] On completing this statement, which is at once an act of faith, an expression of hope and an action programme, the Commission calls on all Europeans not to ignore or underestimate the importance of what is now happening and to appreciate the value of what has been done so far. Two great spiritual developments dominate this second half of the twentieth century: the reconciliation of the churches and the reconciliation of the peoples. The first is not a political matter, but the second is our affair. The reconciliation of peoples has been first and foremost the reconciliation of European nations, ravaged by the two World Wars of 1914–1918 and 1939–1945, both born in Europe of the clash of nationalisms: for the peoples of Europe these were genuine civil wars. This time is now past. The moment has come to call the young and creative forces of Europe to union, action and hope’. Declaration by the Commission of the European Communities, 1 July 1968. Full text available at http://www.ena.lu/ (accessed 28 January 2011).

¹²The Consultative Committee of Churches in the European Communities was established by Protestant churches in the ECSC and the UK in 1964. It was renamed the Commission of Churches in the European Communities in 1972; the Ecumenical Commission for Church and Society in the European Communities in 1979; the European Ecumenical Commission for Church and Society in 1985; and integrated into the Conference of European Churches in 1999. An office was opened in Strasbourg in 1986.

¹³An Ecumenical Group was active in Brussels from 1959 until 1964 under the leadership of Baron van Lynden, General Secretary of the BENELUX and Helmut von Verschuer, Deputy-Director in DG 6 (Agriculture). The Ecumenical Centre in Brussels was registered as an Association internationale sans but lucratif in Moniteur belge no. 2734 on 20 May 1965. In 1966 the Centre employed Reverend Marc Lenders as Secretary, a position he retained until 1999. The Centre was renamed as the Ecumenical Association for Church and Society on 27 July 1981. The Association was dissolved in 2001.

¹⁴Pierre de Charentenay, ‘Les relations entre l'Union européenne et les religions’, Revue du Marché commun et de l'Union européenne, 465 (2003), pp. 90–100.

¹⁵The FSU was placed directly under the President's authority and was composed of eleven Brussels officials, two experts, five interns and one national official. ‘Pour mieux se connaitre. La Cellule de prospective’, Courrier du Personnel, no. 533 (December 1991).

¹⁶Marc Luyckx, ‘Religions Confronted with Science and Technology. Churches and Ethics after Prometheus’, European Commission, Brussels, 1992, http://vision2020.canalblog.com/archives/religions_science_and_technology/index.html (accessed 28 July 2010).

¹⁷David B. Barrett (ed.), World Christian Encyclopedia: A Comparative Survey of Churches and Religions in the Modern World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981).

¹⁸Ibid.

¹⁹Baromètre du Religieux, February 2008, http://www.uclouvain.be/cps/ucl/doc/laap/documents/BAROMETRE.pdf (accessed January 2011).

²⁰Barrett, op. cit., p. 170.

²¹The figures indicate religious representations directly involved in dialogue with European institutions and not their substructures. For example, the COMECE is composed of 24 Catholic Bishops' Conferences while the CSCCEC is a fellowship bringing together 120 Orthodox, Protestant, Anglican and Old Catholic Churches and 40 associated organisations in Europe.

²²The EKD was one of the founding members and the largest financial contributor to the establishment of the ‘Consultative Commission of Churches in the European Communities’ in 1964. After the Merger Treaty, the EKD aimed to establish an independent office in 1969, but this was discouraged by the President of the European Commission, who suggested that churches are better represented by an inter-church organisation.