Religion and Euroscepticism: Cleavages, Religious Parties and Churches in EU Member States

Abstract

Taking into account the attempts to render the European integration process a new cultural and value-based quality on the one hand, and the prevalence of sceptical positions on the other, the role of religion as a factor shaping the process of European integration and its accompanying features such as Euroscepticism deserves special attention. It may be argued that the entire EU is a project inaugurated and pushed along primarily by Christian Democratic forces and inspirations. However, the EU is currently characterised by an advanced state of secularisation in most of its member states and high levels of religious and cultural pluralisation. This article raises the question to what extent religious, in particular Christian, actors such as religious parties and the churches have strayed from this integrationist past and contributed to Euroscepticism. Furthermore, the second question is whether a confessional pattern of Euroscepticism can be identified. The paper addresses these questions by empirically and comparatively analysing the positions and influence of religious actors on Euroscepticism in a selected group of EU member states.

Acknowledgements

The author thanks Anja Hennig (EUV Frankfurt/Oder) and the Viadrina research team for their research of material, their observations and critical suggestions. Many thanks also to the R.E.M. research group and the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.

Notes

1. Wolfram Kaiser (2007) has produced a thoroughly researched and detailed analysis of the central role of the Christian Democratic transnational networks in the launching and development of the European integration process. However, it is striking that – except for a brief mention of the Vatican's changing attitudes to Christian Democracy and European integration under Pius XII and the Vatican's broad support for ‘core Europe integration’ (Kaiser 2007: 180f.), he does so without one single reference to the contribution of (Christian) churches to this process, or their relationship to the Christian Democrats. For a more detailed view on the churches and in particular the Vatican's role in the early ear of European integration, see the contributions to Greschat and Loth (1994), especially Chenaux (1994).

2. The actual process towards European integration was thoroughly discussed only in the British case. The other countries are Estonia, Finland, Germany, and Sweden. A general observation of this project ‘Churches and European Integration’ is that the churches did more to assist than to hinder the processes of European integration (CEI 2004: 6; see http://www.helsinki.fi/teol/khl/tutkimus/cei/CEIFinalReport.pdf).

3. Concerning the research on parties, Ray (1999) and Taggart (1998) cover the time from 1986 to 1996; the CEI project ends in 2004.

4. In this analysis of party positions on European integration, preference was given to expert surveys over party manifestos. This decision follows the arguments by Leonard Ray in his EJPR article (1999) that some issues such as European integration are treated quite differently in individual party manifestos, that comparisons across time and countries are very difficult on the basis of manifestos, and that manifestos are often not available for small parties, thus reducing the universe of parties to be studied.

5. See note 1.

6. A complete list of sources can be obtained from the author ([email protected]).

7. See Ian Paisley, ‘Architect of European Union Advancing to R C Sainthood While the U K is Prepared by Blair to Surrender her Birthright’, European Institute of Protestant Studies, 23 June 2003 (http://ianpaisley.org/article.asp?ArtKey=architect; accessed 18 February 2008).

8. For these reactions from Catholic leaders (see http://www.june29th.com/cardinal_sim_int.htm; accessed 12 February 2008; http://www.katholisch.de/13959.html; accessed 31 January 2009).

9. Denmark does not appear in this category simply because of its relatively small fundamentalist currents. Some groups like Danish Association and New Era can be considered Eurosceptic as well but they are part of the radical right political spectrum rather than churches (see Rydgren 2004).